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CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD: 



LETTER 



TO THE 



HON. HEM AN LINCOLN. 



BAROX STOW, D.D., 

PASTOR OF THE BOWE-SIEEEI CHURCH, BOSTON. 



BOSTON: 
GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

59 WASHINGTON STREET, 
NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY. 
CINCINNATI : GEORGE S. BLANCH A KD. 

1 8 5 9. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S50, hy 
GOULD & LINCOLN, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



ELECTROTYFED BY 

W. F. DRAPER, ANDOVER, MASS. 

PRINTED BY 

GEO. C. RAND & AVERY, BOSTON. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, 7 

I. 

THE UNION THAT IS DESIRABLE, . . . . 21 
II. 

CONSIDERATIONS THAT RENDER CHRISTIAN UNION 
DESIRABLE, . SI 

I. THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF DIVISION UPON THE PIETY OF 

THE CHURCH, 35 

II. THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF DIVISION IN PERVERTING AND 

WASTING- THE RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH, ... 58 

III. THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF DIVISION IN "WEAKENING THE 

DEMONSTRATION IN FAVOR OF OUR RELIGION, . . 79 



III. 

SOME METHODS BY WHICH OUR OWN DENOMINA- 
TION MAY PROBABLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROMO- 
TION OF CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD, . . . 110 

I. WE MAT ENDEAVOR, CAREFULLY, TO DISPOSSESS OUR- 
SELVES OF THE SPIRIT OF SECT, 112 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

II. WE MAY CULTIVATE A HIGHER DEGREE OP PERSONAL 

HOLINESS, 117 

III. WE MAY ILLUSTRATE BY OUR OWN PRACTICE THE GREAT 

PRINCIPLE, THAT THE WORD OP GOD IS THE SOLE 
AUTHORIZED STANDARD IN ALL MATTERS OP RELIGION, 124 

IV. WE MAY CHEERFULLY SURRENDER EVERYTHING ADVERSE 

TO UNION, WHICH WE ARE NOT BOUND BY OUR ALLEGI- 
ANCE TO CHRIST TO RETAIN, .146 

V. WE MAY CAREFULLY REFRAIN FROM EVERYTHING THAT 

MAY UNNECESSARILY TEND TO WIDEN THE BREACH 
AMONG CHRISTIANS, OR TEND TO PERPETUATE ITS CON- 
TINUANCE, 150 

VI. WE MAY COOPERATE WITH ALL CHRISTIANS IN EVERY- 

THING NOT INTERDICTED BY THE LAWS OF CHRIST, . 170 

VII. WE MAY ENCOURAGE A PACIFIC MINISTRY, . . 191 

VIII. WE MAY PATRONIZE A PEACE-MAKING PRESS, . . 202 

IX. WE MAY IMPLORE A LARGER EFFUSION OF THE HOLY 

SPIRIT, 204 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



TO THE HONORABLE HEMAN LINCOLN: 

My Dear Christian Brother, — 

As I have a few thoughts 
upon , an important subject which I wish to con- 
vey, in a familiar manner, to those Christian dis- 
ciples by whose distinctive name we are both 
known, and to whom we sustain endeared rela- 
tions, I venture respectfully to avail myself of the 
influence of your name as a valuable aid to their 
transmission. 

I can think of no fitter medium. For nearly 
sixty years you have been attached by profession 
and by practice to the people called Baptists, 
and during that period you have never wavered 
from the great principles on which their churches 
have ever been " grounded and settled." Having 
been led to the cross for pardon, and introduced 
into the "household of faith," by that eminent 
servant of God, whose memory is so fragrant in 



8 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



our American Zion, the Rev. Dr. Baldwin ; and 
having enjoyed, through many years, not only 
the benefits of his instructive ministry, but the 
peculiar advantages of a confidential intimacy 
which death only could interrupt, you had the 
best of facilities for acquiring a thorough knowl- 
edge of Divine truth, and becoming intelligently 
established in those doctrines which are the be- 
liever's rock of strength. The result has been 
seen in your history, which, by the grace of God, 
has been happily protracted. You are understood 
to be now, at fourscore, what you was previous 
to your majority — a Baptist. As such, you are 
widely known, and as widely respected. Though 
you have out-lived whole generations, and though 
nearly all who knew you best have gone to their 
final home, yet the name of no other layman in 
our ecclesiastical connection is to-day familiar to 
so many ears, and dear to so many hearts, as the 
name you bear. 

But it is not merely or chiefly the estimation 
in which you are held that prompts me to asso- 
ciate with your name this particular service. Hav- 
ing, for more than thirty years, been favored with 
your personal friendship, and also, as I believe, 
with your fraternal confidence, I have had ample 
opportunity to become acquainted with your opin- 
ions and feelings with respect to every question 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



9 



that pertains to the Christian Life and the ad- 
vancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. ~We have 
often conversed upon the evil of schisms among 
the friends of Christ, and the desirableness of 
some cordial, successful endeavor to bring nearer 
together the divided portions of that Body of 
which Christ is the Head ; and I understand that 
your views, and those which may find expression 
in this Letter, are essentially coincident. I know 
not the particular in which we have ever disa- 
greed ; and the fact that our Christian sympathies 
have run so long and so concurrently in a com- 
mon channel, has contributed largely to the pleas- 
ure of my ministry. However the advocates of 
a relaxed carefulness in Christian morals may have 
regarded you as exact and scrupulous, you have 
never, I am sure, been charged with anything like 
narrowness or exclusiveness in your love to the 
great Christian brotherhood. Immovably as vou 
have rested upon the fundamental truths of Divine 
Revelation, as you understand them, and firmly 
as you have adhered to the ecclesiastical polity 
which you believe to be developed in the New 
Testament, the discovery of the first indication of 
sectarian bigotry is reserved for the man who has 
not yet appeared. The right of private judg- 
ment — that primary principle dear to every con- 
sistent Baptist — I have never known you to ques- 



10 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



tion, either directly or by implication. You have 
been accustomed to respect the consciences of 
others just as you would have your own con- 
science respected. While you have been com- 
pelled by assured convictions to occupy essentially 
the platform of a sect, yet, as fitting occasions 
have offered, you have never failed to rise supe- 
rior to that platform, and occupy the higher, 
broader plane of Christian fraternity, manifest- 
ing your fellowship with multitudes not included 
in your own denomination. Your special con- 
nection with a people of a particular name, you 
have never felt to be a bondage. Your compre- 
hensive brotherly love has found, in numerous 
ways, unrestricted scope. You have desired no 
greater freedom than you have uniformly enjoyed ; 
and of the privileges of a free Christian you have, 
at pleasure, availed yourself, ever mindful of all 
Divine limitations, ever having respect to "the 
perfect Law of liberty." Hence you have been 
accustomed, during a long life, not only to asso- 
ciate on equal terms with Christians of other 
names, but also to cooperate with them in works 
of benevolence. This has been your delight ; and 
it has given you a wide-spread influence, concili- 
ating thousands, not only towards yourself as 
liberal, but also towards the denomination whose 
spirit you represented. In reviewing the past 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



11 



from your present position on the frontier of the 
Better Land, you do not, I am confident, regret 
that you have cherished, on so broad a scale, 
this spirit, adding to your "brotherly-kindness 
charity," or that you have given to this feeling of 
your heart so varied and distinct an expression. 
Assuredly, your eternal future is brightened by 
the prospect of association with many whom 
you have known here, not as Baptists, but as 
Christians, — the redeemed by the blood of our 
Saviour. 

Some* personal explanations, at this point, may 
not be impertinent. While on a journey to New 
York, in the autumn of 1842, I had a seat for sev- 
eral hours by the side of a clergyman of another 
denomination, whom I had long known as a de- 
voted Christian, and for whom I cherished a strong 
fraternal affection. We had labored together in 
efforts for the spiritual benefit of our fellow-men, 
and on almost every point of Christian truth and 
duty our views had ever been in delightful har- 
mony. Our conversation, during those hours of 
spiritual communion, turned mainly upon prayer 
as a means of promoting personal holiness, and 
more particularly upon the idea suggested by the 
words of the apostle — "supplication for all saints." 
As an illustration of his own views, my excellent 



12 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



brother mentioned the happy effect upon his own 
mind of a practical compliance with that sugges- 
tion. His words were: "I have been a happier 
man ever since I adopted the practice of always 
praying for other denominations before I pray 
for my own, or even for myself. My heart has 
been drawn out, as it never was before, in love 
for all Christians. I now know what it is to sym- 
pathize in their afflictions and rejoice in their 
prosperity, and they all seem to me as my Fath- 
er's family." These remarks were lodged in my 
memory, and became the subject of many reflec- 
tions, and the occasion of some tender emotions. 
A few months afterwards, being disqualified, by 
the loss of my voice, for public labor, I availed 
myself of the silence and solitude to which I was 
subjected, to do what I never could have accom- 
plished amid the activities of my pastoral voca- 
tion, — I put upon paper the substance of the 
following communication. The manuscript has 
remained in my hands more than fifteen years, — 
a period much longer than Horace recommends 
to authors for purposes of revision and emenda- 
tion. The whole has been since rewritten with 
as much of care as was con^atible with multi- 
plied public duties. You will perceive that I 
have not confined myself to a development of 
the germinal thought, — prayer for all Christians, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



18 



— but I have taken a much, broader range, and 
introduced that thought as one of a series. 

I have adopted the epistolary, rather than the 
didactic or the declamatory, style, as possessing 
some peculiar advantages, especially as being the 
more familiar and affectionate mode of address, 
and adapted to the present condition of my moral 
feelings. 

That my views vrill meet from all a cordial 
assent, I do not, of course, anticipate. Still, I 
venture the expectation that by many they will 
be kindly welcomed; for I am sure that, in our de- 
nomination, there are thousands in whose bosoms 
is a sympathetic chord that ever vibrates at the 
lightest touch of this tender subject, — thousands 
who are inquiring for some path in which they 
can legitimately and honestly walk towards a 
consummation for which their hearts are ever 
longing. To all such I would gladly render some 
aid ; and in the attempt I trust it vrill not appear 
that I assume the office of censor, or even of 
teacher. My desire is to suggest, without a 
breach of modesty, such considerations as may 
possibly facilitate thought and activity in the 
desirable direction. Should the effort contribute 
in any measure towards the accomplishment of 
its intended object, I shall be grateful to Him 
to whom I regard myself as indebted, both for 
2 



14 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



the motive by which it lias been prompted, and 
for the Spirit under whose guidance it has been 
conceived and executed. 

You, my brother, understand me, and will be 
apprehensive of no sinister design, on my part, 
to remove any of the ancient land-marks. And 
yet your observation has taught you how possi- 
ble it is that I may be suspected of a tendency 
to diverge from the " old paths, 73 and a disposi- 
tion to sacrifice truth upon the altar of theory. 1 
You are aware of no such proclivity. "I dwell 
among mine own people."' From convictions 
formed in early life, and often since reviewed, I 
am conscientiously one of them, and one with 
them. I know not that I have ever felt or exhib- 
ited antipathy to any denomination of Christians. 
I have seen excellences in all, such as we might 
profitably imitate, and I have never seen the 
hour when I was not perfectly willing, should 
my investigations touching the correctness of 
our belief and practice make the duty obvious, 
to change my ecclesiastical name and relations, 
and unite with any portion of "the household of 

1 " Commonly, it brings a man nnder snspieion of favoring 
some heresy, or abating his zeal, if he but attempt a pacifi- 
catory work/'* — Barters Reformed Pastor. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



15 



faith," where truth might appear to be more fully 
honored, and Christ more faithfully obeyed. But 
in every instance I have returned from the exam- 
ination of the infallible Word with increased con- 
fidence in the general scripturalness of our doc- 
trine and polity. As I understand the teachings 
of our Lord and his inspired Apostles, I cannot 
honestly be otherwise than what I have been from 
the beginning; and though I should, for all rea- 
sons, prefer the name which was given to believers 
at Antioch, and am always grieved when I think 
of the multiplicity of names by which that com- 
prehensive and appropriate designation has been 
overlaid and degraded ; yet, as circumstances are, 
— as the Christian host is divided and subdivided 
into a great variety of sects, every one with its 
distinctive appellation, — I am not ashamed of 
the one by which we are recognized. It is not 
wanting in antiquity, and, as now understood, it 
is sufficiently expressive. It denotes what I really 
am, and what you are, and what, without a new 
revelation, we expect to be until we shall join 
that portion of " the whole family " to every one 
of whom is given "a new name which no man 
knoweth, saving he that receiveth it." Nor am 
I, by comparison, ashamed of my company; for, 
although there may be some persons and some 
things among us that I suppose could well be 



16 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



spared, and others that might be greatly improved, 
yet here are a people with whom I can happily 
labor for Christian ends, and from whom I should 
count it an affliction to be separated. To the 
practical development of those principles which 
we have learned at the feet of our great Teacher, 
my life is devoted. Whatever, therefore, you 
may find in this fraternal communication, you 
need not be reluctant to receive on the ground 
of any apprehension that the writer has changed 
his views, or is becoming indifferent to the claims 
of any truth or any duty. "I can. do nothing 
against the truth; 5 ' my heart's desire is to do 
something "for the truth." 

Now, dear brother, before we proceed to another 
sentence, let us bow our " knees unto the God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the 
whole family in heaven and earth is named," im- 
ploring the illuminations of that Divine Spirit, 
in whose u light we see light," and by whose 
gracious influence we are ever prepared to receive, 
as well as qualified to discover, the truth. Were 
a form needed, we have one sufficiently appro- 
priate in the "Collect for Unity." 

"O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
our only Saviour, the Prince of Peace, give us 
grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers 
we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



17 



all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may 
hinder us from godly union and concord; that, 
as there is but one Body, and one Spirit, and 
one Hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, 
one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so 
we may henceforth be all of one heart, and of 
one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and 
peace, of faith and charity, and may with one 
mind and one mouth glorify Thee, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen." 

I take it for granted that every one, who would 
make good his title to the name of Christian, 
will agree with me that the interest which seems 
to be awakened with respect to the great question 
of Christian union, is a very encouraging feature 
of our most interesting age. Whatever may be 
thought of the many treatises upon the subject 
with which our heads and hearts are so faithfully 
plied ; or, whatever our estimate of the diversified 
theories which are proposed, indicating modes by 
which it is confidently insisted that the desirable 
end can be attained, we must all feel and acknowl- 
edge that the very idea of harmonious concert 
amonoj Christians of every name is creditable to 
the period in which it is cordially entertained; 
and that the extent to which this idea, so full of 

2* 



18 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



promise to the Church 1 and the world, is coun- 
tenanced and cherished by the present generation 
of believers, concurs with other facts to distin- 
guish the nineteenth century from a long series 
of its predecessors. I concede that in every 
period since the first schism in the Church of 
Christ, there have been good men of various 
communions who have deplored the evils of 
division, and lifted up a voice of strength in 
earnest rebuke of the spirit of sectarianism, and 
fervently implored the great Founder to re-melt, 
and re-unite, and re-mould the alienated frag- 
ments. But, in our day, this interest is not con- 
fined to a few ; it is felt, deeply and solemnly, 
by the great majority of the truly spiritual, the 
working class of every evangelical denomination. 

The causes which have contributed especially 
to awaken such attention to this important sub- 
ject, may doubtless be found in certain great 
facts which happily distinguish our times from 
all that have preceded them since the martyrdom 
of the Apostles ; — such as the enlarged effusion 
of the Holy Spirit, who is preeminently the " Re- 
pairer of the breach, the Restorer of paths to 
dwell in;" the prevalence of religious revivals, 

1 I shall often use the term Church in its broad acceptation, 
as denoting the whole body of professed believers, irrespective 
of their distinctive names. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



19 



which are always, so far as they are genuine, 
conducive to Christian affection and concord ; 
the efforts of all evangelical denominations to 
convert the heathen to Christ — a service in 
which they practically ascertain the importance 
of agreement and cooperation ; and the increased 
acquaintance of different sects with one another, 
resulting from their frequent assemblage and fa- 
miliar intercourse in voluntary associations, where 
they have learned to hold in courteous abeyance 
their distinctive peculiarities, and, taking their 
high position, side by side, on the broad maxi- 
mum of agreement, to be fraternal co-workers 
in a common enterprise. The practical tenden- 
cies of the age have given to the question a 
practical form; and, while thousands have con- 
curred in both feeling and opinion that some- 
thing ought to be done to restore union, — that 
union which the Saviour commanded, and for 
which he prayed, — the general inquiry has been, 
and still is, what? What should be done? What 
can be done? The object is good; is it attaina- 
ble? Much has been said and much written, — 
not all, perhaps, the wisest, or the best adapted 
to accomplish the cherished purpose, — yet, all 
indicative of a painful conviction that somewhere 
there is flagrant wrong, and that it is high time 
the wrong should be sought out, and, like the 



20 



CHRTSTTAW BEOTHEEHOOD. 



dross that hinders fused metal froin welding, be 
put forever away. 

It is no part of my design to examine the theo- 
ries which hare been advanced upon this subject, 
or to propose any specific plan of my own for 
the reunion of the dismembered body of Christ. 
My object is rather to explain what I suppose to 
be the union at which all Christians should aim; 
to point out some of the evil effects of disunion; 
to suggest reasons why we should do all we can, 
consistently with faithful allegiance to Christ, to 
promote the union of all his disciples; and to 
indicate methods by which we may aid in the 
production of so important a result. I shall not 
intermeddle with the cherished principles or the 
polity of any denomination of Christians, but 
shall endeavor to confine myself to matters which 
are extraneous to whatever any sect may regard 
as fundamental to its own ecclesiastical organi- 
zation. My present concern is more with the 
spirit of sect, than with its constitution, or creed, 
or discipline. 

And may the Holy Spirit, "from whom all holy 
desires, all good counsels, and all just works do 
proceed," so inspire and direct as that there shall 
be no violation of that great melting, combining 
principle, the charity which "rejoiceth in the 
truth," and is u the bond of perfectness." 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



21 



I. 

THE UNION THAT IS DESIRABLE. 

The Saviour required his disciples to be united, 
and for their oneness he prayed. Can there be 
any diversity of opinion as to the extent of his 
meaning, when he said, "One is your Master, 
even Christ, and all ye are brethren?" Or, 
when he said, "Other sheep I have which are 
not of this fold; them also I must bring, and 
they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be 
one fold, and one shepherd?" Or, when he 
said, "A new commandment I give unto you, 
that ye love one another," and enforced the re- 
quirement by proposing his own example as the 
model for our imitation, — " As I have loved you, 
that ye also love one another?" Or, when he 
prayed with touching earnestness, " That they 
may be one, even as we are ; I in thee, and thou 
in me, that they may be made perfect in one : 
neither pray I for these alone, but for them also 
who shall believe on me through their word; 
that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art 
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 
in us?" The idea of union which dwelt in his 



22 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



mind, while uttering such language, is unques- 
tionably the idea which ought to exist, unmod- 
ified, in our minds, and in accordance with which 
we should faithfully shape our whole spirit and 
conduct. The Saviour foresaw and appreciated 
the mischiefs that would result from the divisions 
and alienations and strifes of his professed fol- 
lowers ; and he as perfectly understood the bene- 
fits which would accrue, both to themselves and to 
a perishing world, provided they would affection- 
ately cooperate in their Master's service. Hence 
the frequency and the earnestness with which 
he referred to this point, and the diversified 
methods which he adopted to impress upon his 
people the importance of remaining undivided. 

The kind of union that is to be desired and 
sought, may be seen in the primitive Churches, 
not, indeed, in absolute perfection, but in the 
best form that has ever been exhibited. After the 
number of disciples had greatly increased, so as 
to be counted by thousands, it is testified of 
them, and much to their credit, as well as to the 
honor of Christianity, that " The whole multitude 
of them that believed were of one heart, and 
one soul." No one doubts that they kept " the 
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace;" that 
they had "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism;" 
that they were to a degree never since surpassed, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



28 



united, and that they realized in large measure 
the blessedness of those who feel and act as "Oxe 
in Christ Jesus," for "they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost, and spake the word of God with 
great boldness," and " great grace was upon them 
all," and "the Lord added to the church daily 
the saved." 1 Assuredly, the Church was then one, 
presenting to the world the image of a happy, 
united family; all the children of one Father; 
all the disciples of one Teacher ; " all by one 
Spirit* baptized into one body;" all "partakers 
of one bread;" all actuated by one desire, and 
moving in one line toward one grand result. Ac- 
cording to the prediction, they had "one heart 
and one way ; " they " served the Lord with one 
consent;" they were often "with one accord in 
one place ; " they had access through " one Medi- 
ator," by " one Spirit," to " one God and Father 
of all;" they were joint-heirs to one inheritance; 

" Their fears, their hopes, their aims were one, 
Their comforts and their cares." 

When shall the Redeemer again behold upon the 
earth a scene so resplendent with moral beauty? 
When shall a selfish world again yield before the 
moral energy of such Christians ? 

This delightful union was maintained for a con- 

1 Tovs (Too^Ojxivovs, 



\ 



24 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



siderable period without essential change. Ques- 
tions of expediency and policy occasionally arose 
that threatened to interrupt the harmony of feel- 
ing; but how soon and how happily were all 
discordant views adjusted the moment they were 
submitted to the intelligent and peace-loving, 
peace-making. Apostles ! Converts from all na- 
tions were introduced in large numbers ; and yet, 
notwithstanding the wide diversities in their intel- 
lectual character, their early training, their sys- 
tems of philosophy, then' modes of worship, they 
were so effectually assimilated by the renewing 
Spirit, that they blended most harmoniously into 
one body, and were no longer Jew or Samaritan, 
Greek or Barbarian, Platonist or Epicurean. Phar- 
isee or Sadducee, Chx-umcised or Uncircumcised, 
but were all " one in Christ," and their one name 
was Christian Xaturally enough, the converts 
were particularly attached to the ministers by 
whom they believed, and in a few instance-, as 
at Corinth, this personal preference for ;i ray min- 
ister" assumed an objectionable form, and called 
for pointed reprehension; but many years passed 
before this or any other evil effectuated those 
radical divisions which have since occasioned so 
injurious a disruption of the ligaments of Chris- 
tian fellowship. With the exception of some 
minor dissensions that were only temporary and 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



25 



easily healed, and an occasional outbreak of party 
spirit or selfish rivalry that a single reproof would 
quell, — all indicative that the Church in her 
holiest period was imperfect, — the Christianity 
of the first century was distinguished by a degree 
of union among her disciples that no subsequent 
age has witnessed. Xo divisions affected their 
real unity, or prevented their affectionate coopera- 
tion in the great enterprise which their Master 
had charged them to execute. Hence, the intel- 
ligent Waddington, when speaking of the early 
Christians, justly says that "their variations were 
without schism, and their differences without 
acrimony." 5 

From the recorded Acts of the Apostles, as 
well as from their Epistles, we learn how pacific 
was then- spirit, and how studiously they sought 
to preserve inviolate the unity and the fellow- 
ship of all the followers of Christ. Let any per- 
son read these portions of the inspired volume, 
with candid and careful reference to the point 
now under consideration, and he will be not only 
surprised at the amount of attention which the 
Apostles bestowed upon it, but deeply impressed 
with the importance which they manifestly at- 
tached to it. To such a reader it will be clearly 
obvious that the idea of Christian union, of which 
I have spoken as dwelling in the mind of their 

3 



26 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



incarnate Lord, had been, by some process, trans- 
ferred entire to their minds, and that they were 
earnestly desirous to transfer it, unmodified, to the 
minds of all believers, Jew and Gentile. Every- 
where do we find them teaching that Christians, 
irrespective of national, civil, social distinctions, 
are incorporated into one society, and that Christ 
is the basis and the bond of this association ; " for 
he is our peace," said they, " who hath made both 
one, and hath broken down the middle wall of 
partition between us .... to make in himself of 
twain one new man, so making peace." Well 
has it been said that "this twofold doctrine is 
a subject which imparts an entire character to 
some of the epistles, and which furnishes a clew 
to much in nearly all." Any reader, by taking 
this clew, may ascertain for himself the character 
of the apostolic spirit and the bearings of apostolic 
influence ; and, if he has any acquaintance with 
the power of religious teachers, by one course 
to promote Christian harmony, or by an opposite 
course to foment unchristian discord, he will not 
wonder, after a careful study of the writings, 
the labors, and the spirit of the Apostles, that 
during their lives the Church was essentially one 
harmonious and devoted brotherhood. And if 
he is one who truly grieves over the separations, 
and contentions, and dishonors of God's people, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



27 



he will mournfully exclaim, '"0 that none but 
men of such principles and such tempers had 
ever been found among their guides and teach- 
ers ! " Alas ! how soon was the true apostolic 
succession interrupted, and men of selfish motives 
and belligerent dispositions allowed to disjoint 
and scatter, in mangled fragments, the body which 
Paul and Peter, John and James, left compactly 
and beautifully one ! The Lord in mercy give 
to his Churches once more a ministry whose in- 
fluence shall be soothing, healing, nourishing! 

The desirable union among the friends of Christ 
is precisely that which we find so clearly sketched 
and made illustriously prominent in the Xew 
Testament. It is that which the Saviour so ten- 
derly and impressively enjoined upon his follow- 
ers, and for the completeness and universality 
and perpetuity of which he, on his way to the 
Garden of Sorrows, and in anticipation of the 
cross, so fervently prayed. It is that which is 
so delightfully represented as having existed in 
" the multitude of them that believed " at Jerusa- 
lem, — that nucleus of the Church universal, — the 
very model in faith, and love, and obedience, to 
which all ecclesiastical organizations should have 
been faithfully conformed. It is that which the 
Apostles and their coadjutors in the sacred minis- 
try sought most studiously to maintain around 



28 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



the cross as the central attraction and the bond 
of fellowship, and which they were successful, to 
a wonderful extent, in preserving unbroken till 
the last of them went up to receive his reward. 
Let all Christians be like their primitive brethren, 
believing what they believed, loving as they loved, 
obeying as they obeyed, and the union of the first 
century will be the union of the nineteenth century. 

Ton, my brother, will regard me as sufficiently 
specific and definite. By descending to particu- 
lars, I should be liable to an assumption of the 
prerogatives of an interpreter, and thus meddle 
with a department that is foreign to my plan, 
and subversive of my main design. And yet, I 
hesitate not to say that, while I thus speak in 
general terms of the union which the Xew Tes- 
tament recommends and illustrates by examples, 
as the kind of union that is desirable, I have no 
difficulty in determining for myself what the Xew 
Testament teaches upon this subject. Is it in 
any sense doubtful what the Saviour required 
his disciples to be and to do, that they might 
be united to him and to one another ? Does 
any obscurity rest upon the inspired record of 
the belief, the spirit, or the practice, of the prim- 
itive Churches? Are the Apostles at all equiv- 
ocal in their teachings with respect to the kind 
of agreement and assimilation that is essential 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD 



23 



to real, permanent union? Is there any reason 
to suppose, that among the Christians of the first 
century, there were various sects, and that their 
union consisted in affectionate association irre- 
spective of diversity of sentiment and practice? 
Does any one believe that the early Churches had 
different and clashing creeds, or that they admin- 
istered the ordinances in various and dissimilar 
forms? 

The waters that encompass the globe are known 
by different names, as the Atlantic, the Pacific, 
the Baltic, the Mediterranean; but these names 
denote only territorial distinctions, never sus;- 
gesting the idea of difference of quality. They 
commingle and coalesce without any indications 
of either chemical or mechanical disfellowship. 1 
So also in the age of the Apostles there were 
territorial divisions among Christians, for there 
were the " Churches in Judea," the " Churches 
in Asia," the " Churches in Macedonia, 5 ' and in 
many other countries and provinces ; but these 
names never denoted any diversity in creed, spirit, 
or form. Christians of every country, every color, 
every condition, were spiritually, doctrinally, ])rac- 
tically one. Such is the oneness now desirable; 

1 " Circumquaqne porro infatigati fertur fluctus oceani; unus 
quidem, sed multis cognomiiiibus instractus." — Dion. 



30 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



and happy will be that day when we can speak 
of the Churches in England, Burmah, Denmark, 
Jamaica, Virginia, Illinois, Rhode Island, Nova 
Scotia, and, knowing no other distinction than 
the geographical, can recognize ail these compa- 
nies of believers as one; so that when their mem- 
bers pass from one country or one State to 
another, they may everywhere be welcomed, not 
as belonging to a particular denomination, but 
as belonging to Christ, and following in "the 
footsteps of the flock." 1 Party names must be 
dropped, party lines must be obliterated, party 
spirit must be put away, party measures must 
be discontinued ; and all Christians must have 
"one heart and one way;" then will there be 
the desirable union, — that which the Son of 
God requires of his people as essential to the 
full development of their character, and to their 
largest usefulness as his representatives and wit- 
nesses. 

1 " The union of Christians on earth is perfectly consistent 
with many churches, each complete in itself. There* is no 
visible centre of unity on earth to the Christian Church, as 
there was to the Jewish. In the Jewish Church, one candle- 
stick with its seven branches typified the Church of God in 
complete unity, as confined to one nation, with one central 
place of union at Jerusalem; hut in the Gentile churches the em- 
blem is different. There are seven golden candlesticks, and in 
the midst of them one like unto the Son of man." — BickerstetJi, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD 



81 



II. 



CONSIDERATIONS THAT RENDER CHRISTIAN UNION 
DESIRABLE. 



These, my dear brother, cannot be adequately 
represented without a more particular and ex- 
tended reference, than I could wish were neces- 
sary, to the deplorable mischiefs of division. It 
would be far more agreeable to confine my obser- 
vation, and solicit your attention, to the more 
illuminated and cheering side of the picture, — to 
that delightful state of things which we antici- 
pate, not in our day, but somewhere in the bright- 
ening future, when shall return the palmy scenes 
of primitive unanimity, primitive affection, and 
primitive concert ; when " Ephraim shall not envy 
Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim ; " when 
party names shall all be merged and disappear 
in the one sufficient designation, Christian; 
when "there shall be one fold," as well as "one 
Shepherd ; 55 when the whole sacramental host of 
God shall rally around one standard, the blood- 
red Cross, all prompt to obey the orders of one 
Leader, all submissively and peacefully "follow- 
ing the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." How 



32 CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 

inspiring, how soul-elevating the anticipation ! 
Lovely as was the landscape to the natural eye 
when the "dew descended upon the mountains 
of Zion," imparting freshness to vegetation, far 
lovelier to the moral vision will be that scene 
of moral beauty where "brethren dwell to- 
gether unity," and in view oi which all 
holy beings will exclaim, " Behold, how good and 
how pleasant!" That is a scene which, with 
pencil dipped in the "rainbow round about the 
throne," I would fain describe. But, alas! it is 
one which has never greeted my eye, nor has it 
greeted yours. Our predecessors through long 
ages, and many of our cotemporaries, have de- 
sired to see it, 

" But died without the sight." 

It is a state of things which we contemplate 
only by the visual power of faith. Inspired his- 
tory has sketched it on the Past, when the Church 
was young, elastic, and fair, with a single Head 
to control her movements, and a single Heart to 
send the common element of life to her extremi- 
ties. Imagination gives vividness to the picture ; 
we admire it as the ideal of moral loveliness ; and 
yet we admire with a sigh that it finds no actual 
counterpart in the Present. Inspired prophecy 
has painted it on the Future, and shown us the 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



33 



Church in the vigor of meridian life, one and in- 
divisible, well-proportioned and athletic, radiant 
with glory, — "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, 
and terrible as an army with banners." And here, 
as we gaze, our hearts are fired with rapture, and 
naught interposes to diminish the "joy of hope," 
but the saddening reflection that the scene we 
are viewing still lies in the dim perspective, and 
that earth may roll off many more of its proba- 
tionary years before it will be hailed as a present 
reality, and we cry, " 0 Lord, how long ? " 

But while the blessed effects of genuine Chris- 
tian Brotherhood belong to a department of obser- 
vation where we walk by faith, the evils of schism 
are present and come within the realizations of 
sight. And so long as these evils exist, — and 
exist they will till schism is no more, — we gain 
nothing valuable by refusing to consider them, 
or to open our minds to a full conviction of their 
perniciousness. I may probaby be told that some 
good has accrued to the Church and to the world, 
from the distribution of Christians into separate 
and rival sects, and that in strict justice I ought 
to mention the benefits as well as the injuries of 
division. Benefits of Christian disunion ! And 
is the brother who makes this intimation, really 
in earnest? Were I treating of the Divine dis- 



34 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



pensations towards the grievously imperfect, I 
might show how God has manifested " the riches 
of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffer- 
ing," by patiently enduring " their manners in the 
wilderness," and proved himself wise and able to 
educe some good from so great a mass of heaven- 
hated enormity. But, surely, it will not be pre- 
tended that the benefits referred to counterbalance 
one in a thousand of the known and felt evils; 
or that they are really more than incidental effects 
secured by the wisdom and power of an over- 
ruling Providence; or that they constitute, all 
together, any valid reason why schism should be 
continued another day. I may, then, without 
the imputation of injustice or one-sidedness, pass 
them over, as not properly belonging to my sub- 
ject; at the same time rendering gratitude to 
God that he has applied his infinite faculties to 
the eduction of good from a source so fearfully 
charged with pernicious elements ; that he has 
so counteracted the tendencies to decomposition 
as to preserve life in the divided membership; 
and that he has, in any degree, caused a system 
of wrong that, like all sin, is infernal in its origin, 
and destructive in its bearings, to glorify his 
holy Name. 

As it is neither important to my object, nor 
consistent with the brevity which I wish to study, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



35 



that I should attempt a minute and extended 
description of all the evils of disunion among 
Christians, I shall limit my specifications to a few 
of the more prominent; and these I mention for 
the sole purpose of exhibiting more fairly and 
forcibly the reasons why we should seek a restora- 
tion of that harmony which we all concur in 
regarding as desirable. 

1. THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF DIVISION UPON THE 
PIETY OF THE CHURCH. 

The Church consists of individuals, every one 
of whom is a distinct being, possessing capabili- 
ties all his own, and directly responsible for his 
character and conduct to his final Judge. The 
piety of the Church, therefore, is neither more 
nor less than the sum of the piety of all her 
members ; just as her numerical strength is the 
sum of all the persons included in her member- 
ship. And there is no way of improving or dete- 
riorating her piety but by improving or dete- 
riorating the piety of her individual constituents. 
Whatever, therefore, has an unfavorable effect 
upon the personal holiness of her members, is 
detrimental to the holiness of the body. 

The Gospel recognizes us all as moral beings 
in the process of training for a higher position, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



and requires that, by availing ourselves of the 
abundant provisions of the new covenant, we 
should individually aim at the formation of per- 
fect religious character. We are not authorized 
to be satisfied with anything less than complete 
conformity to all the laws under which God our 
Moral Governor has placed us. To the produc- 
tion of such a result, all the agencies and instru- 
mentalities of the system of Grace are wisely 
adapted; and it is not only recommended as a 
privilege, but commanded as a duty, and encour- 
aged by promises, that, in the use of appointed 
means, we should "grow in grace,'' and "go on 
unto perfection/' "Be ye holy," is the unrepeal- 
able requirement. Christ, the atoning Saviour, 
"gave himself for us, that he might redeem us 
from all iniquity," freely pouring out his blood 
which " clean seth us from all sin." The truths 
which he communicated, and the duties which he 
enjoined, and the discipline which he appointed, 
and the hopes which he encouraged, all have 
reference to this end, the complete sanctification 
of his people. "When he " ascended up far above 
all heavens," he "gave gifts unto men," such as 
apostles, evangelists, prophets, pastors, and teach- 
ers, all "for the perfecting of the saints, for the 
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of 



CHRISTIAN BEOTHEEHOOD, 



37 



the spirit, and of the knowledge of the Son of 
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the 
stature of the fulness of Christ." The Apostle 
Paul assures us that the object he had in view, 
while "warning every man, and teaching every 
man, in all wisdom," was that he "might pre- 
sent every man perfect in Christ Jesus." "This 
also we wish," he says, "even your perfection;" 
and his prayer for his brethren was, that the God 
of Peace — not the God of dissension, but "the 
very God of Peace" — would "sanctify you wholly, 
and preserve your whole body, and soul, and 
spirit, blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

Whatever may be the opinions of Christians 
as to the practicability of certain attainments in 
the present life, I suppose it is the desire of every 
one to be "cleansed from all unrighteousness," 
and the prayer of every one that God would 
"create" in him "a clean heart," and the habit 
of everyone to "press toward the mark for the 
prize," "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 
And I presume that every Christian, in his pur- 
suit of that " holiness, without which no man shall 
see the Lord," has found his soul entangled by 
influences that interfere with his progress, — influ- 
ences from which he is obliged to disengage him- 
self before he can successfully jDroceed. Incum- 

4 



38 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



bered with weights, how could the racer outstrip 
his competitors ? Ensnared by besetting sins, or 
by anything that compresses or restrains the free- 
born spirit, how can the Christian bound onward 
as he should in the highway of the redeemed, 
the " way of holiness " that is cast up for the con- 
venience of the Lord's ransomed? 

Have you, my brother, never perceived the 
injurious tendency, in this respect, of the secta- 
rian divisions among the professed followers of 
Christ? Is not the spirit of sect enthralling in 
its influence — preventing, like a tether, the ascent 
of the soul into that fulness of freedom for which 
it longs and sighs? And just in proportion as a 
soul has been emancipated from that spirit, allow- 
ing its affections to spread out over the whole 
multitude of the redeemed, has it not felt itself 
unbound, and facilitated in its soarings into a 
region where its atmosphere is purer, and its 
horizon wider? 

It was the prayer of an ancient Christian, em- 
inent for his struggles after personal holiness : 

" Coarctationes cordis mei clilata; 
Et ex angustiis meis educ me." 

He perceived, he felt the evils of a contracted 
heart, and desired its dilatation. Confined within 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



39 



narrow limits, he could neither breathe freely, 
nor work effectively, and he prayed to be led out 
into a larger place. Said another, whose piety 
was of still higher order : " I will run in the way 
of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge 
my heart." And the Apostle Paul exhorted the 
members of a certain Church whom he desired 
to be eminently holy: "Be ye also enlarged." 

The injurious bearing of this great evil, in one 
direction at least, is very justly described by a 
powerful writer of our own country. " Upon the 
religious intellect " says the late Rev. Dr. Mason, 
"sectarian feelings and fellowship produce an 
effect analogous to that of the division of labor 
upon mechanical ingenuity. By concentrating its 
operations in a few points, or perhaps in a single 
one, they render it peculiarly acute and discrim- 
inating within those limits, at the expense of 
enfeebling or destroying its general power. Con- 
versations are cherished, books are read, time 
expended, faculties employed, not for the pur- 
pose of acquiring larger views of the Redeemer's 
truth, grace, kingdom and glory; but for the pur- 
pose of training more accurate disputants upon 
the heads of sectarian collision. Here men dis- 
tinguish themselves; here they shine; here they 
gratify their vanity, which they often mistake for 
conscience." 



40 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



Perhaps I cannot do better than to quote the 
same writer's remarks touching the influence of 
this spirit upon the practical judgment. " This," 
he says, "is clearly seen in the estimate which 
animated sectarians form of character. The good 
qualities of their own adherent they readily per- 
ceive, admire, and extol ; his failings they endure 
with patience ; and his faults, which they dare not 
justify, they can overlook and extenuate. But, 
should he quit their connection, the first are dis- 
paraged, the second are no longer tolerable, and 
the third swell into crimes. On the other hand, 
virtues and graces in a different party, they are 
apt to admit with reluctance, and rarely without 
qualification. But, lo! all is altered! .... Our 
breasts fill with the milk of human kindness ; and 
we welcome to our hearts the very man whom, 
a week before, we eyed askance, and should have 
thought to have been a spot in our feast of charity. 
Nay, we are often summarily convinced that a 
person of dubious character has been injured and 
persecuted. Our inquiries are conducted with the 
nicest delicacy. So gentle our temper! so chari- 
table our construction! so large an allowance for 
infirmity! so deep our sympathy! Whence the 
miracle? Has a seraph, with fire from the altar 
of God s touched these men of unclean lips, and 
taken away the stains which alarmed our purity? 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



41 



Oh no ! They are precisely what they were. 
Wherefore, then, this change in eyesight, in feel- 
ings, in behaviour ? Simple inquirer, thou knowest 
nothing of party magic ! They have come, or are 
coming, or are expected to come, over to us." 

If such are vicious tendencies of the spirit of 
sect, — and who will venture the averment that 
they are not? — then it is not difficult to see how 
the heart may be injuriously affected, and the 
quality of one's religion seriously impaired. If 
the religious intellect is thus dwarfed and shriv- 
elled down to the diminutiveness of an inferior 
particular which it habitually contemplates and 
elaborates; and if the practical judgment is thus 
perverted and seduced into wrong estimates of 
the good and evil of moral character, just accord- 
ing as that character is identified with our party, 
or their party ; surely the moral feelings will not 
remain uncontracted, unperverted, unseduced, but 
will inevitably suffer a deplorable deterioration. 
It is an office of religion to enlarge and ennoble 
the little mind, by making it familiar with great 
subjects, filling it with great ideas, prompting it 
to the accomplishment of greaU ends, opening 
upon its observation great scenes, giving it a 
great field for the free play of its faculties and 
affections, proposing a great Model for imitation, 
holding out a great prize as the reward of great 
4* 



42 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



endeavors. The sectarian spirit reduces the great 
mind — it would the mind of an angel — to nar- 
row dimensions, by restricting its contemplations, 
its solicitudes, its aims, its efforts to insignificant 
matters, often microscopic points, unbefitting the 
dignity of its nature and the glory of its destiny. 

Another damaging effect of the divisions among 
Christians" is, that, whatever the sect in which we 
choose our home, we are likely to find the field of 
our affections circumscribed. Few will acknowl- 
edge the truth of this statement until they shall 
have examined facts and analyzed their own feel- 
ings. Accustomed to compression, we may be 
unaware of the stringencies of our condition, 
and think ourselves free when we are unduly re- 
strained. Those who are without the limits of 
our particular denomination, provided we think 
on the whole that they are Christians, we may 
regard with some favor, and we may say some 
kind words respecting them, and sigh out some 
occasional regrets that such good people should 
not be altogether such as we are. The feeling 
which we cherish towards them we denominate 
by the sacred name of Charity, — a term which 
has been robbed of its true import, just in pro- 
portion as the godlike quality which it denotes 
has been transmuted into something spurious. In 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



43 



the days and in the writings of the Apostles it 
represented the crowning excellence, the upper- 
most stratum of the pyramid of graces, of which 
faith was the lowest, resting on " the Rock of sal- 
vation." Charity was then Love, and nothing 
else ; and, apart from it, as the finish and adorn- 
ment, religious character was a deformity. But 
in our times, the word has become the name of 
a mingled feeling, in which good-will, condescen- 
sion, and even pity, are the ingredients measured 
out with all the nicety and cautiousness of a 
medical prescription. Charity! Yes, Charity, in 
the modern acceptation of the term, is that which 
we give to Christians who u follow not with us." 
"On the whole, notwithstanding their defects, I 
have charity for them," is the very significant 
admission which Christ daily hears from the lips 
of his redeemed, renewed, dependent disciples ! 
" I love them, notwithstanding some deficiencies," 
"would convey to any hearer a different idea. But 
"brotherly love" is too often reserved for the 
party to which the individual belongs, — yes, that 
is the word, belongs; for a party-man in religion 
is not his own, nor is he Christ's, — he belongs 
to his party. It is natural — and the propriety 
of the feeling, within certain limits, need not be 
questioned — that we should feel a special regard 
for those Christians whose principles and spirit 



44 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



and conduct we consider as most completely scrip- 
tural ; but even here there is peculiar danger lest 
we should prefer them because they coincide with 
ourselves, rather than because they most nearly 
resemble the Saviour, and have the largest meas- 
ure of his approbation. Do we take them to our 
hearts because of their attainments in the higher 
Christian life, or because of their exact conformity 
to our opinions and practices? You are not 
ignorant, my brother, that such is the power of 
the selfishness which is nurtured by sectarian 
divisions as to render it easier to regard with 
special favor a man of moderate piety in one's 
own denomination, than a man of uncommon 
holiness w^ho stands associated with a Christian 
people of another name. 

How difficult, under such circumstances, must 
be the formation of a complete religious charac- 
ter ! How difficult, when the benevolent feelings 
are thus restricted, to be " made perfect in love ! n 
How much real excellence is there in loving those 
who love us, and who love us for the same reasons 
that we love them? Well did Jesus inquire, "Do 
not even the publicans the same ? ? ' No increase 
of such love can properly be called growth in 
grace. 

It is a peculiarity of the recent convert that 
he loves all who exhibit the spirit and maintain 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



45 



the life of the Christian ; and when he thinks of 
avowing publicly his attachment to the Saviour, 
and connecting himself by covenant with the peo- 
ple of God, it is inexpressibly painful that he 
cannot follow his convictions of duty without 
identifying himself with a sect, and thus inclosing 
himself within walls which he shall be pledged 
to strengthen and defend, — walls of separation, 
of which he reads nothing in his Bible, — walls 
which divide believers not so much from the 
world as from other believers. Thousands in our 
Churches remember well the simplicity and ten- 
derness of their feelings at the time of their 
spiritual infancy, and the process by which those 
feelings were schooled into submission to what 
they learned to regard as unavoidable necessity. 
With aching hearts they inquired, " Why are 
Christians thus broken into separate and rival 
sects? Why are they not, as I read they were 
in apostolic times, all one?" And they ceased 
not to ask such questions until the Christian feel- 
ing had declined, and the sectarian feeling had 
gained the ascendency. And, occasionally, at 
subsequent periods, as their piety has been re- 
vived and the work of grace has been deepened 
in their souls, have these questions recurred only 
to remain unanswered as before ; while the feeling 
that prompted them, has, by a similar process, 



46 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



been gradually smothered and silenced. On this 
subject I deal not in conjectures; I speak what I 
know, and testify that which I have seen. Every 
Christian is convinced that to unite with a sect is 
better than to make no profession of religion; 
but there are multitudes, of more than one de- 
nomination, who regard the alternative as a choice 
of evils, the whole of which they would gladly 
avoid. They painfully feel the power of the temp- 
tations to which, by a sectarian profession, they 
are inevitably exposed, — temptations which they 
cannot successfully resist, except by withdrawing 
or greatly weakening their vigilance at other 
points which need their guardian forces. The 
position which they have assumed, the influences 
by which they are encompassed, and, above all, 
the subtle power of diabolical agency, render it 
extremely difficult for them to keep their affec- 
tions flowing forth, as they would have them, 
over all barriers, and encircling in their compre- 
hensive embrace the entire "household of faith." 
In such circumstances, the cultivation of brotherly 
love, such as the New Testament both requires 
and illustrates, is a task of no ordinary magni- 
tude, and the wonder is not, that there is so little 
of this large-hearted affection among Christians 
of differing sects, but that, in our divided and 
alienated condition, there is any. So far as we 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



47 



possess this element of Christian character, let 
us be grateful, and own that by the grace of God 
we are, in this particular, what we are. And let 
us henceforth be doubly vigilant, lest our con- 
sciences should be ensnared by the vicious delu- 
sion that love of sect is, under our peculiar cir- 
cumstances, all that our Master requires ; and lest 
we should illegitimately infer that the more we 
have of this narrowed "love to the brethren," 
the stronger may be our assurance that " we have 
passed from death unto life." Who are " the 
brethren?" Are not all who have received "the 
adoption of sons," and been made " partakers of 
the Divine nature," and have one Father by their 
new creation in Christ Jesus? Are not all who 
" draw near to God " through the same Mediator 
and by the same Divine agency? Are not all 
whom God has "accepted in the Beloved," justi- 
fying them by that " righteousness which is unto 
all and upon all them that believe," and shedding 
abroad his love in their hearts by the Holy Ghost ? 
Are not all who have "good hope through grace" 
warming their bosoms, and not only animating 
them under all the troubles and conflicts of this 
life, but promising to do so amidst the languors 
and agonies of their last moments ? Disobedient 
they may be in some things which we think im- 
portant, and yet they are believers in Christ ; they 



48 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



are "fellow-citizens of the saints;" their names 
are in the Book of Life; they are heirs to the 
heavenly inheritance. If we love them not as 
brethren, and "heirs together with us," how can 
we say that we have fellowship with God ? How 
say that we love the invisible Father, when we 
love not his visible children, — his " whole family ? " 

The unfavorable influence of our sectarian divis- 
ions is manifest also in their effect upon our study 
of the Sacred Volume. It is not an unusual com- 
plaint among ministers, that they find it extremely 
difficult to read the Bible for devotional purposes 
without frequent distraction of mind, and diversion 
of thought and feeling from their proper object. 
Passages strike their attention as affording topics 
for sermons, or choice proof-texts in support of 
some favorite theory, and their intellects work in 
that direction, while their hearts remain unim- 
pressed, unrefreshed; and they bend the knee in 
prayer with no benefit from the warming, quicken- 
ing Word. Similar is the tendency of our minds, 
when habituated to sectarian reflections and discus- 
sions, to wander from the true objects of Biblical 
investigation, and to regard that precious treasury 
of truth as merely an armory from which may 
be drawn the weapons of our warfare, not with 
God's enemies, not with our own enemies, but with 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



49 



brethren who do not coincide with us in all points 
of systematic divinity, or all the formularies of 
Christian worship, or all the triangularities of eccle- 
siastical organization. 

Among the primary objects with reference to 
which we should " search the Scriptures," one is, 
that we may obtain the food requisite to the nour- 
ishing of the life of God in our own souls. The 
Bible is the storehouse of spiritual nutriment, con- 
taining " the sincere milk of the word " for the 
infantile and feeble, and the a strong meat " suited 
to them who are of " full age." It was the testi- 
mony of Moses, in advanced life, and as the result 
of a long experience, and his statement was cor- 
roborated by the Saviour, that " Man doth not live 
by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth 
out of the mouth of the Lord." " Thy words were 
found," said a prophet, " and I did eat them ; " and 
Job declared that he esteemed the words of God's 
mouth more than his necessary food. Every spirit- 
ual Christian knows that he advances in the divine 
life, and has his graces developed and strengthened, 
only so far as he receives and inwardly digests the 
nutritious truths which his provident Father has 
garnered up for his family in the Old and New 
Testaments. Having opened to him such a copious- 
ness of good things, which he has often found to 
be sweet to his taste and invigorating to his whole 

5 



50 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



spiritual constitution, he wonders not at the Divine 
requirement, " Grow in grace, and in the knowl- 
edge of our Lord Jesus Christ," and he is not 
surprised to find that they who live by faith upon 
God's word are spiritually " fat and flourishing, 55 
and strong in soul for Christian labor. Why should 
it not be so, when they are fed with " the finest of 
the wheat," and " satisfied with honey out of the 
Rock," and refreshed daily with " water out of the 
wells of salvation?" Seest thou a professor of 
Christianity spiritually lean, gaunt, haggard— know 
assuredly that he lives not upon the " children's 
bread." 

Another object should be that we may ascertain 
the duties which God would have us perform. Be- 
fore the revealed Word was furnished, the inquirer 
for the Divine will resorted directly to .God, and 
asked for specific directions. But, since the com- 
pletion of the Sacred Volume, and the discontinu- 
ance of Inspiration, the inquiries of Christians, not 
only as to what they shall believe, but also as to 
what they shall practise, are directed to these 
heavenly oracles. He who studies the Bible with 
a sincere desire to learn his duties, and with a full 
determination to perform them, never fails of suc- 
cess ; for the Saviour declares that " if any man 
will do," "he shall know;" and that if any man will 
follow him, "he shall not walk in darkness, but 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



51 



shall have the light of life." Such a Christian will 
gratefully confess to God : " Thy word is a lamp 
unto my feet, and a light unto my path." It is 
indeed the " more sure " source of practical illumi- 
nation " unto which we do well that we take heed 
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place till the 
day dawn," and we find ourselves in a land where 
"there is no night." Blessed Book! all "given by 
inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness ; that the man of God may be perfect, thor- 
oughly furnished unto all good works." 

A third object is, that we may become familiar 
with the truths by which we are to advance the 
spiritual benefit of our fellow-men. Christians are 
appointed to an important agency in promoting 
the salvation of men. The instrumentality which 
they are required to employ, and to which the 
Holy Spirit gives efficiency, is the Divine Word. 
The truths of the Bible are the arrows, " sharp in 
the heart of the King's enemies," that do execution. 
Jesus, after declaring important truths, added, 
" These things I say that ye might be saved ; " and 
his petition for his chosen, was, " Sanctify them 
through thy truth; thy word is truth;" and he 
assured them, " Now ye are clean [KaSapoi] through 
the word which I have spoken unto you." The 
Apostles regarded the Gospel — that glorious sys- 



52 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



tern of truth addressed to free agents — as the 
grand instrumentality by which they were to 
destroy sin and build up holiness in the world; and 
with that instrumentality they made themselves 
carefully and extensively acquainted, that so. being 
" mighty in the Scriptures,* 5 they could " with great 
power" execute their mission of mercy. The 
truths of the Bible are " the weapons of our 
warfare,*' u mighty through God " to the demoli- 
tion of Satan's i; strongholds " in human hearts, 
human philosophies, and human customs ; and they 
are also the implements of wondrous efficacy by 
which we prepare the materials, and build upon the 
one Foundation of that spiritual edifice which con- 
sists of " lively stones," " fitly framed together," 
and which "groweth unto a holy temple in the 
Lord." He, therefore, — whether he be a "master- 
builder" or a " worker together with him," — who 
would show himself " a workman approved unto 
God, that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly 
dividing the word of truth," must make himself 
familiarly acquainted with that " word of truth." 
Let his soul be deeply impregnated with the spirit 
of his Master ; and then, with the Bible in his 
heart, and in his hand, and upon his tongue, — the 
Bible understood, loved, and skilfully used. — he 
will be " thoroughly furnished" as an agent of 
good to the Church and the world. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



53 



Such are the primary objects that the Christian 
should have in view as he bends his faculties to the 
study of God's revealed truth. With the accom- 
plishment of such objects the sectarian spirit most 
injuriously interferes. It mly prompt to the inves- 
tigation of the Divine Oracles, and lead to the 
acquisition of some truth; but its object is widely 
diverse from those which I have specified, and from 
every object which a spirit inhaled at the foot of 
the cross would propose to accomplish. It is no 
part, or, at best, only a secondary and subordinate 
part, of its cherished design to employ its attain- 
ments in Biblical knowledge to promote the inter- 
ests of personal holiness. The true sectarian does 
not study the Bible so much for spiritual nutriment 
as for theological argument. He aims, not so 
much at the extension of the kingdom of Christ, 
as at the strengthening and defending of denom- 
inational ramparts. He trains himself to the dex- 
trous use of " the sword of the Spirit," not that he 
may win trophies to his Lord from the ranks of 
the enemy, but that he may be a skilful gladiator 
in controversies with a portion of his Father's chil- 
dren who utter not his shibboleth, or who, in the 
exercise of the right of private judgment, have 
chosen a name and adopted a polity of their own. 
He clothes himself with a panoply, not " the w r hole 
armor of God," as described by an % Apostle, but 
5* 



54 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



one which he has manufactured more for the pro- 
tection of his intellect than his heart, of his theo- 
logical consistency than his spiritual integrity ; and, 
thus equipped, he goes forth to conflict — not with 
" principalities and pavers," the " rulers of the 
darkness of this world," but with brethren whom 
he knows, and, if asked, acknowledges, to be " fel- 
low-citizens of the saints, and of the household of 
God," and heirs with him to the promised inheri- 
tance. 

Alas ! what multitudes of the professed followers 
of Jesus are better skilled in partisan warfare than 
in the holy art of resisting the devil, and over- 
coming the world, and keeping the body under ! 
It is admitted that " he who winneth souls is wise ;" 
but, in their estimation, he is immensely wiser who 
gets the mastery in argument, and prostrates — in 
modern phrase, uses up — an antagonist brother. 
Is it not a fact, a mournful fact, that a large propor- 
tion of Christians are better versed in those points 
respecting which denominations differ, than those 
in which they agree ? 

Surely it requires no great perspicacity to see 
that our divisions, by encouraging the study of the 
Bible with a spirit and an intent that are adverse 
to the cultivation of Christian love, must have the 
effect to deteriorate individual piety, and impair 
individual useful n ess. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



55 



Much might be said respecting the loss "which 
individual piety must suffer from the amount of 
feeling, time, and effort, that are almost inevitably 
given to sectarian interests and sectarian projects, 
rather than to the claims of personal sanctincation, 
or the advancement of the Christian cause. The 
flame of patriotism is sure to be feeble and flicker- 
ing in the bosom of that man who gives to party 
what belongs to his country. It is not easy to be 
a strong partisan and also a good citizen. And 
there is a broader range for the affections than the 
nation, though it be " our own, our native land." 
The true man regards the interests of humanity as 
superior to those of nationality- He is not con- 
tent with loving a single nation ; he loves his race, 
and would benefit the whole. So is it with the 
Christian, who always finds the spirit of sect incom- 
patible with enlarged devotion to Zion's welfare, 
and full allegiance to Zion's King. What he gives 
of heart and endeavor to a sect, as such, is so much 
withheld from the claims of general brotherhood. 

And it would not be difficult to show how 
unhappily our schisms minister nutriment to the 
malign dispositions, while the better qualities are 
left to languish in pining atrophy. In desiring 
the prosperity of his own denomination, the Chris- 
tian is very liable to be willing that others should 



56 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



suffer. Ill describing the progress of his own 
principles, he is under a strong temptation to 
represent the principles of others as declining 
in public confidence. Only by special effort can 
he command the magnanimity required to speak 
justly of the excellences belonging to another 
sect. Unless he is extremely careful, he Trill 
magnify the alleged errors and imperfections of 
others, while he extenuates or conceals what- 
ever is objectionable in his associates. A testi- 
mony advantageous to his opponents he receives 
at a discount, and one that is unfavorable he 
accepts at a premium. "Magnes mendaciorum 
credulitas, 5 ' is an old proverb that has not yet 
lost its pertinency ; for credulity is still the mag- 
net of untruths; and many such magnets are to 
be found in every place where the sectarian spirit 
prevails, drawing together loose insinuations, flying 
rumors, and idle conjectures, and embodying them 
into forms disparaging to the reputation, and det- 
rimental to the influence, of whole bodies of Chris- 
tian believers. 

Should it be said that these are not uniformly 
or necessarily the results of sectarian division, 
my only reply is that they are the natural, and, in 
numberless cases, the actual, fruit of such division ; 
and that the tendency, in all cases, is to the pro- 
duction of such fruit. To retain tenaciously our 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



57 



own views and practices, and yet feel, speak, and 
act as we should towards all who differ from us, 
is not indeed an impossibility, but certainly is a 
difficult and rare attainment. If ecclesiastical his- 
tory proves anything, it furnishes abundant proof 
that good men often find it easier to tolerate 
moral obliquity of conduct than nonconformity 
of creed or ritual. 

Well may the lovers of Christian holiness, who 
are striving after higher attainments in the Divine 
life, solemnly protest against the perpetuity of 
an acknowledged evil that subjects them and all 
their fellow-disciples to such numerous, powerful, 
and unnecessary temptations. Why should their 
consciences be exposed, gratuitously, to so many 
snares? Why should their benevolent feelings 
be so restricted and pent up by enclosures, beyond 
which, without extraordinary effort, . they cannot 
pass ? Why may they not read their Bibles sim- 
ply and exclusively as Christians who wish to be 
"complete in all the will of God?' 5 Why may 
they not consecrate their whole time, thought, 
feeling, effort, to the cultivation of holiness in 
themselves and others ? When they would labor 
and pray for the entire suppression of malevolent 
feelings, and the full development of those which 
are " lovely and of good report," why should they 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



be cruelly encompassed with influences which 
excite and nourish the noxious elements, and de- 
press into dwarfish and sickly insignificance their 
competitors, the gracious affections? Why can 
they not be perfectly free to give their coun- 
tenance and sympathy to " the weightier matters 
of the law,'' and of the gospel also, without incur- 
ring the suspicion that they are becoming indif- 
ferent to denominational claims? My brother, 
you will not blame me, if I repeat, that some- 
where there is flagrant wrong, which ought at 
once to be repented of and put away. 

2. THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF DIVISIOX EN" PER- 
YEETIXG AXD WASTING THE RESOURCES OF THE 
CHURCH. 

Commanded by her Sovereign to spread out 
in affectionate concert, and conquer the revolted 
world, and reclaim it to himself, the Church, for a 
season, obeyed his instructions, and gave delight- 
ful proof of her loyalty. That the results were 
salutary to herself, beneficial to the world, and 
glorious to her honored Lord, authentic history 
abundantly testifies. Those were days of true 
Christian Fraternity in Christian Activity. One 
Head presided over the movements of the Church, 
and was reverently acknowledged; one Heart 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



59 



beat in her bosom, and sent to every member one 
element of invigorating; vitality. " The whole 
Body, fitly framed together, and compacted by 
that which every joint supplieth, according to 
the effectual working: in the measure of every 
part,' 5 moved forward under the direction of one 
Will ; having in view one end, the glory of Christ ; 
governed by one rule, the Divine Word; impelled 
by one motive, evangelical Love. Thus moving 
toward one point, and in one line, the Church 
moved with power, and one effect was " increase 
of the Body unto the edifying of itself in love." 
Her prayers were effectual, for they were the 
joint supplications of those who agreed as touch- 
ing the things which they desired and asked; her 
testimony was convincing, because it was the 
concurrent testimony of thousands, among whom, 
without a Satanic miracle, there could have been 
no collusion ; her endeavors were effective, for to 
the execution of her great enterprise, her mem- 
bers and her resources were unreservedly conse- 
crated. The world saw and felt and confessed 
that it was plied by a moral power, before which 
its depravities, and philosophies, and religions, 
were like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor. 
One of her number could say, that " from Jerusa- 
lem round about unto Illyricum" he had "fully 
preached the gospel of Christ." In less than fifty 



30 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



years after the ascension of her Lord, she had 
not only "filled Jerusalem with her doctrine," but, 
according to the concession of an enemy, "the 
world with her converts." She was a united 
Church, and her fraternal cooperation was an im- 
portant element of her power. She neither }:>er« 
verted nor wasted any of her ability by devoting 
it to inferior purposes; much less by employing 
one part of it to counteract another. 

The Apostles were, one after another, sent home 
to their reward; and their immediate successors, 
partaking largely of their spirit, and acting on 
their plans, led on the Church still "from con- 
quering to conquer," every day gaining new vic- 
tories for her King, and every evening exclaim- 
ing, "Thanks be unto God who always causeth 
us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest by 
us the savor of his knowledge in every place." 
Happy, beyond description, for the Church and 
the world, if that spirit had never subsided; if 
those successes had never been interrupted; if 
the same consecration to one work had been per- 
petuated ! 

Satan's policy is to divide and weaken. By 
diligent search he found seams in the Christian 
mass, and, inserting small wedges, he found ambi- 
tious men, of questionable piety, to drive them. 
Stealthily, slowly, the Church became divided, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



61 



and began to turn her attention from the great 
service assigned her, to matters of internal policy, 
'•strifes about words," "vain jangling," and other 
evils, against which she had been plainly and 
solemnly admonished. From that period, through 
long centuries, her men and her means became 
largely devoted to the aggressive and the de- 
fensive operations of the indefinite number of 
feeble squadrons into which she Was more and 
more broken. At length, by the might of the 
secular arm, dissent was well-nigh crushed, and 
what was called the Church assumed a consoli- 
dated form under an earthly head, and the night 
of spiritual despotism was long and dreary. The 
Reformation of the sixteenth century was the 
reviving of light and life. But it was an imper- 
fect work, and was disfigured by divisions among 
its leaders, and, consequently, among their fol- 
lowers; and Protestantism, with all its benefits, 
has entailed upon the Church the evils of schism, 
multiform, virulent, disgraceful. The Papacy has 
strength in her centralization, and her control of 
the consciences of her millions. Protestantism 
has strength in her principles; but it is cut up 
into factions, and is immensely wasted by being 
perversely employed in party conflict. In Spain 
we have an illustration of the practical influence 
upon power of both union and disunion. Once: 
6 



62 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



she was united, and history is burdened with the 
record of her achievements. Subsequently, she 
became divided into factions, which have ever 
since been preying upon one another, and thwart- 
ing all designs for the common good. Now, she 
is one of the poorest and feeblest of the nations 
of Europe. "Were she to talk of foreign conquest, 
she would be the laughing-stock of the world. 
Similar have been the results of schism in the 
Protestant Body. The Church is weakened and 
crippled, not merely by the division and subdi- 
vision of her numerical strength, her pecuniary 
resources, and her moral energy, but immensely 
more by the perversion and waste of her ability 
in that guerilla warfare, Spaniard-like, which has 
been kept up for three centuries. "Biting and 
devouring one another," sects have been " con- 
sumed one of another," — consumed as to their 
piety, their influence, their capabilities for useful- 
ness. The result is, that her attempts at foreign 
invasion are wanting in vigor, and make but a 
feeble impression on the domain of the prince of 
darkness. And this is not all. While the sects 
have thus been employed in party controversies, 
the forces of evil have been left free to perpetrate 
human destruction on the largest scale. Several 
hamlets on the side of Etna were in danger of 
being destroyed by streams of lava that came 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



63 



pouring in their direction. The inhabitants turned 
out to throw up embankments and dig trenches 
that might divert the currents, and thus leave 
their homes and their property unharmed. But 
they were of rival and disagreed hamlets; and, 
heedless of the common danger, they soon began 
to dispute about their work, and the way of doing 
it; and from hard words they proceeded to harder 
arguments, and broke their implements of labor in 
rough encounter. The issue was, that the river 
of fire, undiverted, rolled on, and overwhelmed 
the dwellings and the vineyards of the bruised 
combatants, and they mourned, too late, the folly 
of their feuds and bickerings. 

Am I incorrect in matters of fact? Are my 
conclusions illegitimate? What has the Church 
been doing for the last fifteen centuries? And 
what have been the results of her impolitic and 
unlovely procedures? Begin with Eusebius, and 
read the volumes of history which have given im- 
mortality to the humiliating record of her shame ; 
— I mean not the histories which have been writ- 
ten by her enemies, and designed to hold her up 
to the derision and scorn of posterity, — nor yet the 
histories prepared by violent schismatics, abound- 
ing in misrepresentation and party abuse, — but 
those more impartial histories which intelligent 



64 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



Leads and honest hearts have commended to our 
investigation, and upon whose statements of fact^ 
and delineations of character, and philosophical 
inductions, we can rely as confidently as we can 
trust anything human, — and what is the conclu- 
sion to which you come, — what, but the obvious 
one, that the moral power of the Church has, to a 
deplorable extent, been squandered upon unwor- 
thy and forbidden objects? Examine the books 
w T hich she has produced, only a remnant of which, 
indeed, have descended to our times, and what 
are the subjects of which they treat, what the 
ends at which they aim, what the spirit in which 
they were conceived and elaborated ? If we may 
judge from the specimens thought worthy of pres- 
ervation, or confide in the testimony of the less 
partial historians of successive ages, what have 
been the aim, the temper, the character, of the 
sermonizing of the Church? Have her preachers, 
more than a small minority, been the "peace-mak- 
ers" whom the Master would pronounce "blessed 55 
as "the sons of God?" Have they not, by tens 
of thousands, been distinguished for their pug- 
nacious spirit and conduct, — the bludgeon-men of 
party, contending for victory, not over sin and 
Satan, but often over brethren, wearing, like them- 
selves, the Christian name and the Christian liv- 
ery? Has not the pulpit, which was ordained 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



65 



to the exhibition of Christ crucified as the Healer 
of human woe, been made the arena of inflam- 
matory debate, the platform of catapeltic con- 
troversy, destructive rather than conservative, 
more the instrument of the Furies than of the 
Graces ? 

But we need not retire into the past to ascer- 
tain the effect of disunion upon the pulpit and 
the literature of the Church, or the tendency of 
a sectarian pulpit and a sectarian literature to 
pervert and waste her best resources, and thus 
diminish her ability to accomplish her proper 
service. The pulpit and the religious press are 
not in our day, as they should be, the conse- 
crated vehicles of light and love. "With all their 
improvements, resulting from the revived spirit 
of evangelical enterprise vrhich appears in every 
department of Zion, and happily promises much 
greater improvements, they are still too much 
the engines of party spirit and party measures. 
Preachers, and authors, and editors, still feel it 
incumbent on them to superintend their respective 
denominational interests, and vigilantly guard, at 
every point, the partition walls against the attacks 
of the heretical; and in the support of these 
Defenders of the Faith, saying nothing of the 
aggressive class whose mission is to push inva- 
sion and make breaches, an undue amount of 

6* 



06 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD 



Christian resources is absorbed. Nor is this the 
"whole or the worst of the evil. The misapplica- 
tion of mental power, of time, of money, is surely 
something to be regretted. But immensely greater 
is the loss resulting from the spirit that is engen- 
dered, the prejudices that are strengthened, the 
alienations that are aggravated. Who can esti- 
mate the evils occasioned by the enfeebling of 
Christian graces, the deterioration of Christian 
character, the perplexing of sincere inquirers, the 
grieving of the Holy Spirit, the hardening of 
unbelievers, the dishonoring of the Saviour? It 
may be said that Christians of all parties, to be 
honest, must defend their own creeds and prac- 
tices, and endeavor to extend as widely as possi- 
ble the views which they conscientiously believe 
to be Scriptural. Admitting the statement as 
plausible, the fact remains, that, by this process, 
there is an amount of wasteful expenditure for 
which there is no plausible apology. Physical 
ability and moral power, that belong to Christ 
and to his universal cause, are devoted to party ; 
and, therefore, as I have twice said, there is wrong 
somewhere that deserves rej)rehension. A state 
of things which imposes upon Christians this seem- 
ing necessity, and involves such violations of the 
laws of Christian economy, cannot be justified 
even by sectarian sophistry. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



67 



My dear brother, are not you and I and all our 
fellow-disciples accountable to our redeeming Lord 
for the manner in which we employ ourselves, our 
time, our treasure, our all? And when we shall 
stand before him, and answer for the application 
of our resources, will it k be acceptable to him that 
we have devoted a third, a fifth, or even a tenth, 
to the maintenance of party fortifications, or the 
prosecution of any mere party policy ? May we 
never forget our responsibility to our final Judge ! 

During the last half-century, the different sects 
of the evangelical have, in addition to partisan war- 
fare, commenced and carried forward operations of 
a better kind, bearing a more truly Christian aspect, 
and contemplating results of a higher order. How 
much, in these apparently benevolent activities, 
there may be of sectarian aims, impulses, and spirit, 
is best known to the Searcher of hearts, But that 
there is much which God approves, it would be 
uncandid and unjust to question. It is delightful 
to see the friends of Christ, even in their separate 
and more or less sectarian organizations, going 
forth to the service which has been so long and so 
criminally neglected. By these movements, im- 
perfect as they have been, great good has already 
accrued to themselves, and great blessings have 
descended upon thousands of the perishing, both 



68 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



at home and abroad. But the experiments which 
they have made in the various departments of 
Christian enterprise, have developed most strongly 
the evil of which I am treating. In consequence 
of the prevalent divisions and the seeming impos- 
sibility of union, — perhaps, in some cases, the ab- 
sence of a desire for union, — every denomination 
has organized its own system of machinery, to the 
support of which the ministry and the membership 
feel themselves pledged, and for the efficient action 
of which large demands are often made upon their 
liberality. Thus, in the United States, as in Eng- 
land, there are, in the single department of Foreign 
Missions, a number of these separate organizations, 
every one complete in itself, and any one of them 
capable of conducting the operations of the whole. 
Supposing that all the Christians in North America 
should be united, as were the Christians of the first 
century, and should agree to cooperate heartily and 
fully in efforts to evangelize the heathen world, it 
is not difficult to see that one Board or Committee, 
with its Secretaries, Treasurer, and Clerks, could 
easily superintend the whole system of operations, 
however extended, thus sparing many valuable 
men for other services, and saving a large propor- 
tion of the expense now unavoidably incurred in 
the support of so many sets of machinery. As 
matters now are, every separate missionary organ- 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



09 



ization is obliged to employ, for the diffusion of 
information and the supply of its treasury, a large 
number of agents, all of whom must be paid, and 
who travel over mainly the same ground, at great 
sacrifice of time, labor, and pecuniary expense. In 
this particular, there would, upon the supposition 
of union, be an economizing of resources not at all 
to be despised. 

You have, my brother, only to look at the mul- 
tiplicity of societies, strictly denominational, and 
yet contemplating essentially the same ends, to be 
convinced that our unchristian divisions are the 
occasion of a most unwarrantable perversion and 
waste of our means of usefulness. And in view 
of such facts, minor though they be, compared 
with others, you will say that schism in the Body 
of Christ is censurable. If it be asked, "Where 
lies the responsibility of all this wrong ? " that is 
the question which I propose to my own con- 
science, and which you will propose to yours. 

Christianity is the patron of learning; and 
Christians of all denominations show their con- 
victions of its importance by providing means for 
the education both of their children and their 
ministry. But such is the influence of the spirit of 
sect, that every denomination has its own institu- 
tions, from the boarding school up to the Univer- 



7^ 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



sity and Theological Seminary, with Boards of 
Trustees, pupils and patrons mainly its own, and 
dependent principally upon denominational feeling 
and liberality for their sustentation. The mis- 
chievous results of such an arrangement are a 
legion. Institutions are unnecessarily multiplied, 
and by consequence are neither endowed nor 
adequately supported. 1 Suitable libraries and 
other parts of the desirable apparatus of education 
are not furnished. Instructors are not so well 
paid as to induce them to seek the highest quali- 
fications for their employment. An elevated order 
of education is not provided for; and that for 
which provision is made, is liable to take on a 
sectarian coloring and configuration. For the 
support of these institutions, large demands are 
made upon the Churches, as such, or upon their 
more able members, and when these demands are 
presented, the appeals are quite apt to be addressed 

to denominational pride or prejudice. "The 

are doing generously for their Academy or Col- 
lege, and they are reaping the benefits. We must 
contribute more nobly to ours, or it will suffer 
in the comparison, and our interests will be inju- 
riously affected." Thus, while we are all the 

!See Dr. TTayland's "Thoughts on the present Collegiate 
System in the United States." 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



71 



friends of education, we are expected to favor it 
in such forms and in such relations as that the 
advantages will inure to ourselves. 

3STow, placing out of the account the moral 
effect of such competition, it will be obvious that, 
by supporting more institutions than are needed, 
Christians are perpetrating a sinful waste of their 
means of usefulness. Churches are robbed of 
pastors to supply presidents and professors, while 
many, who might be pastors or evangelists, are 
detained as instructors in small, sickly institutions. 
And then the amount of funds that is annually 
drawn from the Churches to relieve these institu- 
tions from embarrassment, or to sustain their half- 
famished existence, is no small item of expendi- 
ture, and might be more judiciously appropriated. 
I may be told that more is done in this way, than 
would be accomplished under any system of 
Christian union. Probably more is given^ but 
is more done? And are sectarian motives neces- 
sary to impel Christians to a due liberality? It 
may be true, according to Quarles, that 

" Some faiths are like those mills that cannot grind 
Their corn, unless they work against the wind ; " 

and it may be true that some men are the most 
profuse in their donations under the provocatives 



72 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



of opposition ; but it is none the less true that 
under this system there is an enormous mispplia- 
cation of resources. 

As circumstances are, human wisdom cannot 
easily determine how this evil may be remedied. 
It is the natural fruit of our divisions and their 
consequent jealousies and rivalries, and, by a 
reacting process, aggravates the cause in which 
it originated. The curse belongs to the spirit 
of schism, and there must the corrective be ap- 
plied. 

We are accustomed to speak of the destitu- 
tions of our country. Large tracts of moral ter- 
ritory are represented as unreclaimed, and invit- 
ing the care and the toil of the evangelical culti- 
vator. And so long as the divisions, which few 
attempt to heal, are perpetuated, will these moral 
wastes be likely to remain and to enlarge them- 
selves, reproaching us for our selfishness, and 
giving to the winds their cry for relief. We have 
places of worship enough, and preachers enough, 
in the evangelical denominations of this country, 
to supply double the territory and double the 
population, that are now accommodated, with 
the means of grace. There is not an economical 
distribution, and the cause of this inequality will 
be found mainly in the fact, — not, as some sup- 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



73 



pose, that the cities and large towns are exces- 
sively supplied with |>reaehers and places of wor- 
ship, — but that the spirit of sect has j)revented 
diffusion by crowding two, three, or more Churches 
and as many preachers into small places, where 
a single Church and a single pastor could and 
should have occupied the whole ground. 

Of course, all denominations have an equal 
right to establish Churches, build houses of wor- 
ship, and support preachers wherever they please,, 
on territory lawfully procured, accountable only 
to the Judge of all for their motives, their prin- 
ciples, or their policy. The question with which 
we are just now concerned is not one of simple 
natural right, — for, touching that point, there is 
little difference of opinion ; nor is it one of mere 
Christian comity, respecting which there is, unhap- 
pily, much laxity of conscience, — but it is a ques- 
tion of expediency, of practical wisdom, of pru- 
dent economy, such as concerns all who would 
do the greatest good with their means, and do 
it under a full sense of their accountability to 
Christ. Is it becoming Christians so to differ as 
to bring their efforts into collision, and make their 
natural rights reciprocally destructive ? Is it a 
judicious distribution of their men and money, 
to appropriate more than are needed to a small 
field, when whole regions, measured by miles. 

7 



74 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



rather than by acres, are totally neglected? Take 
a village which, with its immediate surroundings, 
contains three hundred or five hundred inhab- 
itants. One house ojf worship, of moderate dimen- 
sions, could accommodate all who might attend. 
One minister could preach to the whole, and j)er- 
form all the duties that properly belong to a pas- 
tor. But what is more common than to see, in 
such a village, two or more houses of worship, 
with each its vestry for social meetings, and gach 
its bell, heavy enough to be heard by other vil- 
lages, and each its preacher, a little better, it is 
contended, than the other or others. Now, set- 
ting aside, for the present, the bad moral influ- 
ence which, from humiliating observation, we 
know is the almost invariable attendant of such 
a state of things, let any one estimate for himself 
the loss to the general cause which results mainly 
from that fruitful source of evil, sectarian division. 
All the preachers, more than one, might be spared 
for destitute districts. All the money expended, 
beyond the sum required for one set of ecclesi- 
astical operations, might have been given to the 
aid of feebler Churches, or the promotion of Home 
Missions, or in various other ways, to advance the 
general cause. 

Nor is this want of economy the whole of the 
evil. Where there are so many societies for so 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



75 



fSw people, they are necessarily small and feeble. 
Their houses of worship, erected under the influ- 
ence of sectarian pride and competition, often cost 
them more than they can pay, and they are com- 
pelled to provide for the interest of a debt, or 
to call upon Churches in other places for relief 
from the incumbrance. They cannot adequately 
support the preachers they want, and are obliged 
to borrow or beg to make up for a deficiency, or 
to employ, at lower rates, preachers of inferior 
ability, and, as a consequence, lose their more 
intelligent hearers. Under this system, to a large 
extent, have grown up two evils, — begging for 
meeting-houses, and instability of the pastoral 
relation, — evils which no grand jury has yet pre- 
sented as nuisances. 

Thus, in consequence of our sectarian disunion, 
our resources, both physical and spiritual, are ab- 
sorbed in the accomplishment of sectarian objects. 
We are "consumed one of another," and little 
is loft for the higher ends of the Christian life. 
There, flaming out on the inspired page, is the 
unfulfilled, unrepealed command, " Go ye into all 
the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture." But, no; w^e cannot do that: for the little 
vineyards which we have been trying to enlarge, 
a yard per annum, cannot spare us, or more than 
a pittance of our property. Two, three, four of 



76 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



us, all evangelical in the main, must take care 
of our respective fractions of a village, come what 
will of hundreds of millions who never heard the 
first word of the gospel! No; we cannot con- 
tribute for any outside objects, — often this is 
sober fact, — for we have such heavy expenses in 
supporting our society, that we stagger under our 
burden ! Is this right ? Can any unperverted 
conscience think it right ? The differences among 
evangelical denominations may have their import- 
ance. My argument requires not their deprecia- 
tion. But are they so important as to justify this 
doubling and trebling of our forces in such small 
fields, when seven-eighths of earth's population 
are perishing in ignorance and guilt? Are no 
personal comforts to be surrendered, no desirable 
gratifications to be sacrificed, for the benefit of 
millions hastening to the pagan's grave and the 
pagan's eternity? 

This multiplication of feeble societies has also 
an unfavorable effect upon the intellectual char- 
acter of the ministry. A cry from the heathen, 
or from the destitute regions of our own country, 
seldom withdraws a candidate for the sacred voca- 
tion from his studies. The call may be loud and 
piercing, but it is not heard; or, if heard, not 
heeded. He feels the need of thorough training ; 
he must endeavor to qualify himself more fully 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



77 



for his important work. In all this he may be 
fight. But, let an application come from some 
village where are two or more rival interests, 
all acknowledged to be essentially Christian ; and 
let him be told that the "other societies" have 
each a pastor ; that his denomination are suffering 
exceedingly from their destitution; that the young 
people are going off to the other meetings ; that 
the choir and the Sabbath School are diminish- 
ing, — and a chord is touched that vibrates, and 
none the less because he may have in prospect cer- 
tain domestic arrangements. His sectarian feel- 
ings are brought into full play; denominational 
interests are depending upon his decision; and 
it requires but a few more facts of the same bear- 
ing, and a little more entreaty from the deacon 
or the committee, commissioned to negotiate with 
him, to overcome his love of study, and conquer 
all his scruples touching his obligations to the 
Education Society or other patrons, and to make 
him forego the advantages of a thorough course 
which he has often spoken of as too important 
to be sacrificed. The little society of seventy-five 
or a hundred must be taken care of, and he is the 
man to guard their interests against all depreda- 
tors. The duties will not be severe ; he can there 
pursue his studies, and, on the whole, perhaps, 
get as much good as by continuing a few years 
7* 



78 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



longer in his well-begun course. He accepts the 
invitation, marries, is ordained, flourishes a while 
the wonder of the village. Five years afterwards, 
where is he, and what is he ? 

As we look through the land, we see not a few, 
any one of whom might have sat for this picture ; 
and every one of whom is a standing proof of the 
injurious influence of sectarian divisions and rival- 
ries. These divisions and competitions, by prac- 
tically reducing the standard of ministerial attain- 
ments, rob the Church of a large amount of 
ministerial power. If it be said that this evil is 
not universal among the denominations, I reply, 
that gratitude is due to God for the preservation 
of any from its baneful effects. 

I might proceed further, specifying particulars 
of perversion and waste of the energies of the 
Church resulting from her unholy divisions. But 
need I say more ? How, my brother, can the 
Church of Christ consent to such an appropriation 
of resources that were given her by her Lord for 
other and nobler purposes ? How can she afford 
thus to squander so much of her strength, when 
the whole, most carefully economized, is only suf- 
ficient for the purposes specified in her charter 
of incorporation ? And why does she persist in 
cherishing and perpetuating the reign of that spirit 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



79 



of evil — Schism — a demon -whose motto, worn 
on his brow in sulphureous characters, is — Divide 
and destroy ! 

3. THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF DIVISION IN WEAK- 
ENING THE DEMONSTRATION IN FAVOR OF OUR 
RELIGION. 

When Jesus stood at the grave of Lazarus, he 
prayed to his Father, as if for permission to raise 
his friend to life, and assigned as a reason, that he 
wished to convince the spectators of the divinity of 
his mission : " Because of the people that stand 
by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast 
sent me." And, after predicting a future event, 
he added, " Xow I tell you before it come, that 
wmen it is come to pass, ye may believe that I 
am he." Standing alone in the world, he was 
obliged to furnish proofs in himself that he was 
the Sent of the Father, the Saviour long promised, 
long* expected. To this end he employed miracle 
and prophecy, as the best adapted, in his circum- 
stances, to produce the desired conviction. But, 
when he was about to leave the world, he selected 
another kind of evidence, that should be per- 
manent and intelligible proof of the Divine origin 
of his religion. Addressing his followers, he had 
said : " By this shall all men know that ye are 



80 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



my disciples, if ye have love one to another;" 
thus indicating the way by which the world should 
ascertain their relation to their Master. But, ad- 
dressing his Father in that prayer which he may 
have intended as a specimen of his sacerdotal 
intercession, he said : " Neither pray I for these 
alone, but for them also which shall believe on 
me through their word; that they all may be 
one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, 
that they also may be one in us ; that the world 

MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU HAST SENT ME." And 

again, immediately after : "The glory which thou 
gavest me, I have given them ; that they may be 
one, even as we are one ; I in them, and thou in 
me, that they may be made perfect in one; 

and THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW THAT THOU HAST 

sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved 
me." This oneness of Christians would be some- 
thing new, and would attract attention. Nothing 
of the kind had appeared in any form of society, 
and the Saviour knew that human nature would 
never produce an association of unrelated indi- 
viduals bound together entirely by love. There 
was nothing analogous to it in paganism, or even 
judaism. A people drawn together from all nations 
and ail classes; of all possible temperaments, all 
gradations of intelligence, all diversities of custom ; 
and so subdued and assimilated in their moral 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



81 



feelings as to constitute a unity, having "one heart 
and one soul," — would indeed be something ex- 
traordinary, — a moral wonder, such as the world 
had never seen, and such as would carry conviction 
to the most reluctant and sceptical of the presence 
and prevalence of a supernatural agency. 

In this exhibition by Christ of a great principle, 
we have a key that opens to us, in part at least, the 
secret of the astonishing success of the early Chris- 
tians. "Union is strength," says every one capa- 
ble of articulating a truism; and when it is ut- 
tered, the main idea is doubtless physical. Rivers 
united form the mighty Mississippi. Snow-flakes 
united form the irresistible avalanche. Atoms 
united form the mountain barrier. Battalions 
united form the victorious army. States and prov- 
inces united make the powerful empire. But who 
remembers that the mere fact of union may in itself, 
apart from all action, be power? Entirely apart 
from the aggressive movements of the primitive 
Christians^ — apart from all their preaching, ex- 
horting, praying, — there was an unconscious influ- 
ence acting upon observers ; their affectionate 
harmony, their oneness of spirit, produced upon 
the world impressions favorable to their character 
and to the claims of their religion. As the result 
of the union, multitudes were led to think better, 
not only of them, but also of their Master, and to 



82 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



open their minds the more candidly and receptively 
to their heavenly message. Tertullian says that 
this fact commanded the attention of their enemies, 
and called forth expressions of admiration; 1 and 
he reckons the brotherly love and concord of the 
Church among the primary elements of her moral 
power. Gibbon, whose principal work is enven- 
omed with subtle sneers and malignant satires, 
aimed at a religion which he hated the more the 
less he understood it, — even Gibbon, in his at- 
tempts to account for the rapid propagation of 
early Christianity, — a fact which he admits and 
endeavors to explain without an acknowledgment 
of any superhuman agency, — assigns a number of 
causes, and this as one of the most efficient — 
the union that subsisted among Christians. Poor 
man ! why did he not, in a manly spirit, examine 
the nat ure and the causes of that remarkable union ? 
He perceived the relation of the two facts as ante- 
cedent and consequent. Christians were affection- 
ately united, and therefore were successful wherever 
they went with their message. What was the an- 
tecedent of the former fact, the Christian union to 
which such results were largely attributable ? There 
w^as a department of truth which depravity was 
afraid to approach, and the intellect, restrained 

1 " Vide, inquiunt, ut se diligunt ; et pro alterutro rnori parati 
sunt." 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



83 



by the heart, left it untouched. Therein was evi- 
dence of the Divine origin of the Christian system, 
and to call that witness would be fatal to his case. 

Be it remembered, that so long as Christians 
remained united, with their ranks compact, and 
their efforts directed to the conversion of the 
world, the Church commanded the world's re- 
spect, and she went on increasing in numbers 
and strength. But the moment the spirit of 
schism found admission, and she became divided, 
and turned her weapons against portions of her- 
self, she was dishonored in the eyes of the world, 
her progress was retarded, the beginnings of her 
imbecility were apparent, and she ceased to be 
a reliable witness for Christ. 

The innumerable divisions and bitter contro- 
versies that defaced the beauty and crippled the 
energy of the Christian Church during the fourth, 
fifth, and sixth centuries, prepared the way for 
the successes of the false prophet of Mecca, and 
facilitated the triumphs of that system of im- 
posture which, even now, has more adherents 
than the Christianity of the New Testament. 
"While the Church w T as one," says Isaac Tay- 
lor, " Christianity spread, or, should we not say, 
burst over the world, and gathered myriads of 
converts from lands within and far beyond the 



84 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



limits of the Roman empire. When Christians 
became factious, when other names than the 
name of Christ were called upon, then the evan- 
gelical circle drew in apace : no more conquests 
were made ; or they were conquests purely nom- 
inal; and, ere long, the fierce Avenger of the 
Lord's quarrel with his Church, breaking bounds, 
sword in hand, from his sultry Arabian sands, 
drove the distracted flock from field to field, until 
the Christian name was near to be quite lost from 
the world." 1 

Who that has ever conversed with a papist, or 
read a Romish book, is not aware that a standing 
objection to Protestantism is its want of unity? 
"You," says the Romanist, "are not one. You 
are divided in creed, in ritual, in organization, in 
feeling. In all these respects the Catholic Church 
is one. Agree among yourselves in faith, in com- 
munion, in action, before you ask us even to ex- 
amine your theory." However remote from the 
truth may be the declaration that the Catholic 
Church is so completely one, and however objec- 
tionable may be her seeming unity, resulting, as 
it does, from the pressure of an unparalleled 
spiritual despotism, still the argument is valid, 



1 Saturday Evening, pp. 33(5-7. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



85 



so far as it applies to Protestantism ; and Protes- 
tants should know and feel that, by continuing 
their schisms and dissensions, they are contribut- 
ing to the perpetuity of a system of error and 
superstition which they profess to abhor, and 
riveting the fetters of the papacy upon millions 
of enslaved souls, for whose redemption they pro- 
fess to pray and labor. 1 

The quarrels and alienations that prevailed 
among the Reformers of the sixteenth century, 
impeded the progress of the Reformation, and 
many who sincerely desired its success, were so 
grieved at heart by these unchristian strifes, that 
they never withdrew from the mother Church. 
And, ever since, not a year has passed but this 
same argument has carried many a proselyte over 
to Popery; and that argument — call it as you 
please, fair or foul, legitimate or sophistical— is 
at this moment successfully urged over the w T hole 

1 " The Papal body, weak in its utter want of Scriptural sup- 
port, — weak in its idolatries, its practical enormities, and its 
plain hostility to the Word of God, — is yet strong in one thing 
only, that it moves as a single phalanx, obedient to a single will. 
Whatever it wins, it wins simply through our divisions. That 
immense mass which embraces most of the manhood of our 
country, stands, in the presence of these divisions, uncertain, 
embarrassed, indifferent, or, at least, inactive." — Bishop Burgess. 



86 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



territory of Protestant Christendom; and never 
shall we deprive it of power for evil until we can 
show that we are truly one, not only in our pro- 
tests against the abominations of the Man of Sin, 
but also in our views of truth, our Christian prac- 
tice, and our fraternal cooperation. 

Infidelity, too, has availed itself of our divisions 
to barb and poison the shafts which it has aimed 
at the life of Christianity. This, it may be said, 
and said truly, it has done disingenuously and 
maliciously; but the fact remains unaltered, that 
we have furnished fatal occasion to the disingen- 
uous and malicious to pierce and inflame, per- 
petrating damage which the tears of all living 
Christians can never efface, and which the labors 
of many generations of the holiest can never re- 
pair. It was well said by an eminent writer of 
the seventeenth century, and it is still deplorably 
true, that <; our controversies about religion have 
brought even religion itself into controversy." 1 
And our attempts to apologize for our diversi- 
ties of religious sentiment and practice, by the 
alleged obscurity of Scripture and the consequent 
innocence of contradicting interpreters, have only 

1 Stillingfleet's Irenicuin : A Weapon-Salve for the Church's 
Wounds. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



87 



aggravated the evil by virtually justifying the 
rejection of a Book that is so equivocal and sus- 
ceptible of such a variety of constructions. 

It is also matter of painful experience, that our 
efforts for the conversion of the impenitent, who 
are not professed infidels, are the more ineffective 
in consequence of our divisions. Even though 
we abstain from disputes and criminations, yet 
the simple fact of our distribution into sects, with 
every one its lines of intrenchments, and its posted 
sentinels, and its system of watchwords, is held 
up by the unbeliever as a protective shield against 
every argument, every appeal. Says Dr. Carson : 
"The differences that subsist among Christians 
are among the chief obstacles to the progress of 
the gospel. Scoffers triumph, in our divisions, 
and the world in general are stumbled. By the 
existence of so many religious sects, unbelievers 
are prejudiced against the truth; and believers 
who are blended with worldly Churches, are kept 
from considering the duty of separation. 5 ' 1 How 
often, in 1 our conversation with individuals, is this 
fact presented by them in resistance of our ten- 
clerest expostulations ; so that we make no prog- 
ress till, after an awkward attempt at explana- 
tion which seldom satisfies ourselves, we have 



i Reply to Dr. Ewing, 1809. 



88 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



extorted a reluctant, half-way concession that, as 
sinners, they need a Saviour, and that Christ is 
the Saviour they need. We allege, with truth, 
that men act irrationally when they assign this 
feet as a reason why they should not honor the 
claims of personal religion. As well might they 
say that they would not love their country, and 
obey its laws, because there are rival and conflict- 
ing parties in politics. As well might they refuse 
to dine until all the clocks in town strike twelve 
together. Their conduct in this matter is inex- 
cusably deficient in manliness, and tends to self- 
ruin. The fault which they perversely employ to 
their own destruction, is the fault of Christians, 
and not of the Christianity that requires of all 
repentance, faith, and a holy life. But still the 
evil is none the less real or pernicious, because 
sinners perversely employ it to their own undoing, 
We blame them for the suicide, and yet supply 
the weapon with which we know T they may in- 
sanely take the life of their souls. Constituted as 
man is, we can never prevent the consequent until 
we withdraw the well-known antecedent. And 
here, my brother, let me refer you to an excel- 
lent charge by Bishop Burgess to the clergy of 
his diocese. One paragraph I cannot forbear to 
quote : 

" There is a blessing which, could it be attained. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



10 



would remove one of the most prevailing obstacles 
to cordial conviction, and would leave to the Gos- 
pel such power as it has not known for centuries. 
It is the blessing of Unity. If you ask of twenty 
different men, as you meet them, their reason for 
delaying or refusing obedience to the commands 
of Christianity, ten of them, if not fifteen, will ask 
in return how they can be expected to see clearly 
where guides so differ, and where sects and churches 
contend with such eagerness. With the reasonable- 
ness or even sincerity of this reply we are not 
now concerned ; but it is lamentable that it can be 
made and cannot be refuted. It is a spectacle that 
should arouse the Christians of this land, and 
compel all idle strife, at least, to be silent. All 
of us feel the evil ; but most of us despair of a 
remedy, till the mighty Spirit of God shall cause 
us to see eye to eye, and produce an uniformity of 
persuasion, which till now has not existed, since 
at the Reformation the Bible was thrown open. 
To indulge in idle projects would indeed avail 
little; yet, amongst the many speculations of our 
time, few might be more harmless than those 
which should be directed towards Christian union 
and unity ; and if some sagacious minds were em- 
ployed in actual efforts for its attainment, the 
recollection would not be bitter to them in advanc- 
ing years, nor would the story be told with dis- 



90 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



honor in coming ages. It is time that this weapon 
were withdrawn from the hands of the enemy. 55 

It is no unusual thing for the strifes and con- 
flicts of two or more denominations whose differ- 
ences of creed are not great, to give birth to 
organized forms of fatal error, and to supply the 
nutriment by which they thrive and overgrow the 
products of evangelical truth. Noxious vegeta- 
tion rises into the rankest luxuriance on battle- 
fields where the soil is enriched by the blood and 
bones of fallen combatants. Show me the spots, 
on either hemisphere, where Christians have the 
most fiercely battered and bruised one another, or 
where they who had every reason for living peace- 
ably together have indulged in petty controver- 
sies about secondary interests, and I will show you 
the spots where the worst errors are the most 
deeply rooted and bear the most poisonous fruits. 

In your journeying you come in sight of a beau- 
tiful valley, in which, along a single street, is a 
village of a hundred houses, some of stone, some 
of brick, but mostly of wood, and interspersed 
with the offices of professional men, the stores of 
merchants, the shops of artisans, and school-houses. 
Through that valley meanders a stream that has 
its head in a mountain lake, and is for miles a 
brawling torrent, dashing wildly over rocks and 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



91 



dams, and affording power for the driving of pro- 
ductive machinery ; but here it quietly moves 
between banks that are dotted with clumps of 
bushes, and shaded by many a stately elm or but- 
ton-wood. The valley is skirted on both sides by 
hills, whose sides are highly cultivated, and at 
whose bases are gentle slopes and alluvial mead- 
ows richly burdened with the green or the golden 
products of industry waving in the western breeze. 
From the summit of one of these hills you con- 
template the scene, and admire. Surely, you think, 
Johnson must have stood here before he wrote 
that luscious description of " The Happy Valley." 
Behind you are mountains through whose passes 
you have threaded your Avay; across the valley, 
in the fylue distance, are other mountains whose 
precipitous sides you are to climb to-morrow. 
But you are thinking of neither the past nor the 
future ; you are enchanted by the present. The 
vale at your feet, rich in natural beauty, has de- 
rived from art additional loveliness ; and, as you 
gaze, you wonder if the Old World can furnish 
a view of equal charms. From the midst of the 
cluster of dwellings, now embowered in the richest 
mid-summer foliage, there loom up in dignified 
prominence three edifices, differing in shape, di- 
mensions, and color, and you at once recognize 
them as devoted to the worship of Almighty God. 



92 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



Not knowing the extent of the population in the 
vicinity, and supposing, quite naturally, that the 
supply is created by actual demand, you conclude 
that the moral scenery before you is only the coun- 
terpart of the physical. " Happy people ! " you 
exclaim ; " how liberal the provision for thy spir- 
itual culture ! Here, surely, Piety has her cher- 
ished home ! Here the fruits of holiness abound ! 
And if there be contention in heaven, it must be 
as to who of all 

' The spirits in bliss 
Shall bow their bright wings to a scene such as this/ 

and here fulfil their ministry to the heirs of sal- 
vation ! " * 

I grieve, my brother, to break that delicious en- 
chantment. But what says history ? Within the 
memory of the middle-aged there was in that vil- 
lage but one place of worship, and that was of 
sufficient capacity to accommodate all in the town- 
ship. Its pulpit was respectably filled by a man 
of unquestioned piety, and sound evangelical prin- 
ciples; and of his impartiality and industry as a 
pastor no one had occasion to complain. In pro- 
cess of time, another denomination, differing by 
only a few faint shades from the former, found 
favor with some of the people, and a house of 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



08 



worship was erected, -partly by foreign aid, and 
a preacher of fair ability was settled. The result, 
of course, was division, followed by a perturbed 
state of the social elements, warm discussion, acri- 
monious debate, calumnious reports, irritated feel- 
ings, disruption of friendships, embittered aliena- 
tions, and all the unlovely effects of partisan war- 
fare. These two Churches agreed in everything 
fundamental to the soul's salvation; and yet, as 
you have often seen illustrated, the strength of 
their antipathy seemed to be inversely as the 
square of their distance theologically from each 
other. Each minister regarded himself as " set 
for the defence " of those points in which he dif- 
fered from the other, and to them he devoted many 
a week of study and many a carefully prepared 
sermon. Their adherents, with belligerent heads, 
and hearts, and tongues, rallied around their re- 
spective leaders, and pushed them on to the conflict. 
A proselyting spirit became rife ; and if an indi- 
vidual changed sides, he was hailed by the favored 
party as an important acquisition, and decried by 
the deserted party as no loss to be regretted. If, 
by the great grace of God, a person was converted, 
he was sure to be visited by both ministers, and 
all the deacons, and no pains were spared, on either 
side, to induce him to join " our Church." If a 
new family came to reside in the place> they were 



94 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



invited to attend " our meeting," and by both par- 
ties inducements were offered, such as a pew fur- 
nished, exemption from taxes, and even denomina- 
tional patronage in secular business. All this was 
accompanied by abundance of complimentary re- 
marks touching our minister, oitr meeting-house, 
our singing, our Sabbath School, and the class of 
people in out congregation ; and as certainly by 
a superabundance of detractive hints with respect 
to everything pertaining to the other society. 
At length, one of the societies concluded to erect 
a new house of worship, and the subscription for 
the purpose, though deficient by one third of 
the estimated cost, was so large that few, with- 
out inconvenience, could redeem their pledges. A 
spacious edifice, with a lofty steeple, was erected 
and dedicated, with a heavy mortgage upon it. 
A bell, the largest in the county, was mounted 
in the belfry, and for a whole day was made to 
send its echoes among the hills, taunting, with 
iron tongue, the humbled and mortified occupants 
of the smaller and less fashionable sanctuary. This 
was too much to be quietly endured. The pride 
of sect was touched in a tender point, and it was 
at once resolved not to be outdone, but to outdo. 
Another season the other society would have a 
meeting-house a little better than the boasted best. 
They were as good as their word ; for what can- 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



95 



not the sectarian spirit do? — what, except in- 
fluence mankind to love God and one another? 
No matter for the expense ; no matter for a debt 
which should hang for years to their neck like a 
millstone; no matter for anything but successful 
rivalry. The corner stone was laid with a flourish ; 
the house went up, one foot longer and six inches 
wider than the other. 1 The steeple stretched its 
triangular points two feet farther towards the 
physical heavens than its far-reaching neighbor. 
A bell ten pounds heavier than the other, and of 
"much better tone," was balanced aloft, and for 
many a noisy hour was made to retort the provo- 
cation which had been neither forgiven nor for- 
gotten. Well! there they are, two large and 
beautiful houses, either of sufficient capacity for 
the wants of the entire population. The one has 
green blinds on the outside, and the other is 
frescoed inside; the one has a rosewood pulpit, 
and the other has an organ; the one has gothic 
windows, and the other has a colonnade in front. 
The preachers prepare their ablest discourses, the 
bells are rung, and the people collect, eyeing one 
another askance as they pass in opposite direc- 
tions ; but seldom is either house more than one- 
third filled with hearers. 

1 I know two church edifices, thus built in rivalry, where the 
dimensions differed only one inch each way. 



96 



CHRISTIAN BROTHIBHOOD. 



Just at this point a man of great self-assurance 
and a flippant tongue conies along, and appoints 
a Sabbath service in the school-house, where he 
proposes to advocate a system of doctrine derived 
from any source other than the "Word of God. 
For several years there had been a few individuals 
in the place who were inclined to that belief, and 
who, in the midst of the strifes that had raged 
around them, had acquired increased dislike of 
evangelical religion and its professors. The meet- 
ing was fully attended, and the preacher was 
invited to leave another appointment. His the- 
ory was captivating; he made the way of life 
broad, and heaven of easy attainment. The re- 
sult was, that within a year a society was formed 
around this man, whom both the preexistent soci- 
eties agreed, without meaning to agree, to pro- 
nounce " an intruder."' Many, disgusted with the 
dissensions by which the community had been 
lacerated and inflamed, readily fell into the new 
organization, knowing little and caring less what 
tenets or morals they might be encouraging. The 
young people, attracted by novelty as well as by 
the license to sin which the new doctrine gave 
them, were inclined in that direction; and thus, 
by various means, the third party were strength- 
ened and soon enabled to provide a temple of 
their own. In the meantime, the two Churches, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



97 



led on by their ministers, reproached and crim- 
inated each other as the occasion of this pestilent 
intrusion, damaging to both; and the belligerent 
spirit took on new forms, only to alienate still 
more of their supporters and turn the balance 
against themselves by supplying recruits to the 
common enemy. 

"The peaceful Spirit, like a dove, 
Flies from the realms of noise and strife." 

In that community, practical godliness is little 
known. Revivals have been infrequent, very lim- 
ited in extent, very superficial, very equivocal in 
the character of their fruits. The few yrho love 
the truth are disheartened, and the people gen- 
erally are the contemners of Christ and his claims. 

That, my enamored brother, is the moral inte- 
rior of a scene upon which you are lavishing your 
encomiums ; and, while you are so benevolently 
fancying that it must be the favorite resort of the 
heavenly visitants, the angel of the pit is there, 
flapping his dark "wings over the place, and scream- 
ing, in irony, " See, how these Christians love one 
another ! " 

This sketch, if compared with the state of things 
in many communities, may justly be considered 
as exaggerated; but, in its general features, it 
9 



98 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



answers for hundreds of places, fairly exhibiting 
the practical workings of the sectarian spirit, and 
showing how disastrous are its effects, not only 
upon Christian character, but Christian usefulness. 
Multitudes are disaffected, then filled with preju- 
dices, then alienated from public worship, and 
made the easy prey of "seducing spirits that lie 
in wait to deceive, 7 ' and lead their victims in a 
mass to perdition. Even if the prejudiced and 
repelled assume no organized form, and rally 
around no heretical standard, they become the 
despisers of the Christian profession, the con- 
temners of experimental religion, the open vio- 
laters of the Sabbath, the scornful neglecters of 
all the means of grace, and, so far as human 
agency is concerned, utterly unapproachable, in- 
vulnerable. The question is, indeed, a fearful 
one : "Where lies the responsibility ? We may 
lay the whole at the door of human depravity ; 
but whence comes the aliment upon which de- 
pravity and error thus fatten and thrive? One 
party, and another party, may say, "We are not 
in the fault." Satan takes care, for the present, 
to reproach none of us, and pronounces us his 
most efficient coadjutors. But what is the de- 
cision of Him, who says, "See that ye love one 
another with a pure heart fervently?" All par- 
ties, and certainly all persons, may not be equally 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



culpable; but which is the denomination to whom, 
in this department, he might not say, " I have 
somewhat against thee?" 

All the sects, properly entitled to the name of 
Christian, are engaged, with more or less zeal, in 
efforts to propagate the gospel among the heathen, 
— a service quite similar in its aims to that which 
proved the devotedness, and absorbed the re- 
sources, of the primitive Church. But, unlike 
to that Church, they are going forth in separate 
bands, with every one its distinctive name, sys- 
tem of belief, and mode of ecclesiastical organ- 
ization. Considerable success has attended the 
labors of them all, and all have now their Churches 
composed of converts from heathenism. It is not 
apparent that God has made any distinction in 
the matter of success, on the ground of their de- 
nominational peculiarities. They preach Christ, 
and the Holy Spirit gives them souls renewed 
as the fruits of their fidelity. For the present, 
the converts are happily ignorant of Protestant 
schisms. But not very remote is the day when 
they will become acquainted with the discred- 
itable fact, that those who have so benevolently 
come thousands of miles to impart to them the 
gospel, are divided among themselves; that they 
interpret differently some parts of the Book which 



100 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



they allege to be inspired; and that those who 
sent and support them are separated into sects 
which refuse to cooperate, and are not on terms 
of cordial fellowship. Naturally inquisitive, they 
will inquire into the facts, and insist upon expla- 
nation. How shall they be satisfied? It will be 
a sad day for the missionaiy, when he must dis- 
close the real truth, and make an effort to trans- 
form his simple-hearted brethren from Christians 
into sectarians. They have read in their own 
tongue the Gospels and the Epistles, so kindly 
translated for them, and the impression thence 
derived is that believers in Christ are one. The 
lessons and the petitions of Jesus upon this sub- 
ject they have committed to memory. The pic- 
ture drawn by Luke of the unanimity and affec- 
tion of the primitive Church, has filled them with 
admiration. The teachings of the Apostles, with 
respect to brotherly love and mutual forbearance, 
they have regarded as beautifully adapted to pro- 
duce upon earth a miniature heaven. But facts 
are now developed, strangely at variance with 
the impressions which they have received from 
the Xew Testament. They learn the state of 
things in those far-off lands which the missiona- 
ries, for their sakes, have left behind. They be- 
come acquainted, too, with the differences, both 
of belief and practice, that exist among the mis- 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



101 



sionaries of the various denominations. They are 
startled; they are perplexed; they are grieved. 
"Is Christ divided?" "No, no;" is the prompt, 
unanimous reply. "Why, then, are you divided? 
Why are we divided? Whence these party names? 
If there be hut one Lord, why are there more than 
one faith and one baptism?" These questions 
will yet be proposed, and all missionaries must be 
prepared to meet them. Who can foresee the 
results ? Will none of the converts acquire from 
their explaining teachers either the spirit or the 
tactics of party? Will none of them lose con- 
fidence in their new-found religion, and decline 
in their zeal for its diffusion among their coun- 
trymen? And when the unconverted heathen 
shall come to learn the facts as they are, will they 
not, more captiously than ever, object to an ex- 
change of their religion for another whose charac- 
ter and tendencies are thus practically exhibited? 
A valuable American missionary, foreseeing this 
inevitable evil, has proposed a rule of action to 
be observed by all sects, which, he thinks, would 
result in the greatest benefit to the Church and 
the world. "In selecting their spheres of ac- 
tion," says Mr. Abeel, "let each denomination pass 
by the places already occupied, and fix upon those 
where their services are most needed. Let it be 
a mutual understanding, that if education or pre- 
9* 



102 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



dilection dispose the inhabitants of any part of 
a country to a particular sect, all others will yield 
the ground." There is plausibility in this pro- 
posal; it is kind in spirit; and you, my brother, 
will inquire why the experiment should not first 
be tried in our home-field. But creditably cour- 
teous as would be such an arrangement for the 
distribution of heathen territory, it would only 
postpone the development of facts which must 
ultimately be known, and the result would be 
such an extension of our divisions, geograph- 
ically, as would greatly diminish the feasibility, 
and render more remote the prospect, of an ulti- 
mate and happy adjustment of our differences. 
Perhaps the excellent brother who expects from 
the application of this rule "the most desirable 
consequences," anticipates that before there should 
be any actual infringement by one denominate: r: 
upon the territory of another, the predicted and 
looked-for millennial period will have arrived, in 
which shall be restored the glad scenes of prim- 
itive harmony and fellowship. Happy anticipa- 
tion ! But, alas ! how ill adapted to the produc- 
tion of universal fraternity and concord is the 
process of extending party lines, till, like the 
great circles of the astronomer, they shall not 
only encompass the globe, but reach the heavens ! 
"What progress are we likely to make towards the 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



103 



desirable union, while the walls of separation are 
continually strengthened, every party fortifying 
them on its own side?. 

The injurious tendency of our sectarian divis- 
ions, to which I now refer as likely to be devel- 
oped in the field of our Foreign Missionary opera- 
tions, is painfully apprehended by many of the 
missionaries themselves, — by all who are placed 
in circumstances that direct their attention to the 
subject. Where laborers of different denomina- 
tions occupy the same field, as in large cities, and 
have formed Churches side by side, they have 
felt so deeply the importance of producing upon 
all around the conviction of their substantial one- 
ness, as to be constrained to pursue a line of con- 
duct to which they had never been accustomed 
at home, and for which they have supposed it 
not improbable they might incur the animadver- 
sion of their distant supporters. I do not suggest 
a suspicion that they have acted insincerely, or 
that they have sacrificed the convictions of con- 
science upon the altar of expediency. They were 
honest before God, and did what they were sure 
would be pleasing to him. I mention the fact 
merely to show how deep is the impression upon 
the minds of those who are in circumstances to 
appreciate the argument, that the divisions among 
Christians are unfavorable to their influence over 
the heathen. 



104 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



No Christian, I presume, desires that the piety 
of the present generation of believers should be 
transferred to the pagan world. On the con- 
trary, it is matter of fervent prayer that the mould 
into which the converts from heathenism might 
be cast, should be more after the primitive pat- 
tern, including all the elements of a higher order 
of piety than ours ; a stronger faith, a deeper 
humility, a warmer love, a greater deadness to 
the world, and a fuller consecration of ail to 
Christ. Is any Christian willing to have the sec- 
tarian divisions with which we are familiar, ex- 
tended to Asia, Africa, and the Isles of the Sea, 
and to have reenacted there the competitions and 
strifes of Protestant Europe and America? The 
idea is to me inexpressibly painful and revolting ; 
and, while I would ask no body of Christians to 
intermit their efforts for the evangelization of the 
heathen, but would urge them onward by all the 
motives which can be derived from the command 
of Christ, the value of the soul, and the retribu- 
tions of eternity, I would, nevertheless, importune 
them, by the love of the Saviour, and by their 
duty to posterity, not to transfer to pagan lands, 
and therefore not to perj>etuate at home, an evil 
so manifestly unchristian, and so fatally charged 
with pernicious elements. 

I may be reminded that the various denomina- 



\ 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 105 



tions, however divided and debilitated, are doing 
much and purposing to do more for the conver- 
sion of the world ; and that, notwithstanding 
their disunion, God blesses their endeavors, and 
makes their labors effective, so that in no century 
since the decease of the apostles has Christianity 
achieved such extensive triumphs as we are per- 
mitted to witness. All this is readily conceded; 
and with any brother I will bow my knees in 
devout gratitude to the God of all grace for every 
fact which he may produce from this department. 
But if he wishes me to conclude from such prem- 
ises that our schisms are not seriously interfering 
with our Christian efficiency, and may be tolerated 
as a minor evil, I must respectfully plead non 
sequitic?% and remonstrate with him, not only for 
the illegitimacy of his logic, but also for the ob- 
jectionable condition of his moral feelings. He 
is not ignorant of what the New Testament re- 
quires of Christians as to both spirit and conduct. 
He knows the validity of the argument drawn 
from the extraordinary successes of the primitive, 
missionary, united Church. He is aware that, 
mainly as a consequence of our divisions and con- 
troversies, Mohammedanism, Popery, and Irre- 
iigion still divide the more enlightened portions 
of the world among themselves. He can number 
the disciples of reformed Christianity, and learn 



106 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



for himself that they still remain an insignificant 
minority. He will surely admit that the spirit 
of disunion, "by confirming: the irreligious in their 
impiety, disheartening the sincere inquirer after 
truth, and blinding numbers with the idea that 
the sectarian spirit is true piety, is still ruinous 
to the souls of men ; and that, by dividing our 
limited instrumentality at "home, and tending to 
counteract our Christian influence abroad, and, 
incomparably more than all, by grieving the Holy 
Spirit of God, it is still enfeebling and endan- 
gering our missionary operations, and delaying 
the conversion of the world." 1 And will he de- 
liberately suggest considerations to show the com- 
parative harmlessness or innocence of an evil that 
he ought to condemn? "Will he plead for miti- 
gation of sentence, or ask me to soften the tone 
of unqualified rebuke? He and I are involved 
in the consequences of this evil. May we not be 

responsible for its continuance ! 

I 

Both in this country and in Europe I have 
heard addresses upon anniversary platforms, in 
which very charming things were said touching 
the "incidental benefits of sectarian rivalries and 
competitions;" and could I have felt that the 



i Rev. Dr. Harris's Prize Essay on Christian Union. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



107 



speakers were not obsequiously flattering those 
with whom they refused all visible fellowship, and 
were not endeavoring to relieve themselves from 
the conscious awkwardness of a position of seem- 
ing union to which their previous conduct supplied 
no fair counterpart, and with which they did not 
expect that their future course would harmonize, 
I should have had more respect for their sin- 
cerity, and probably been more enraptured by 
their declamation. Incidental benefits of secta- 
rian rivalries and competitions ! Fine theme for 
a Christian minister when facing an audience of 
thousands, and pleading the claims of the cruci- 
fied Saviour, the obligations of his redeemed and 
consecrated Church, and the wants of millions 
perishing in sin ! Apologizing for a wrong which 
Christ abhors, which for fifteen centuries has 
been the deformity and disgrace of Christianity, 
and which is at present, however modified, a 
prime curse of the Church! How much more 
consistent with the dignity of his office, and the 
proprieties of the occasion, to present the Cross, 
and, taking his own position the nearest to it, 
summon us by the miseries of humanity, by the 
solemnities of the judgment, by the woes of the 
lost, by the felicities of the saved, and more than 
all, by the agonies and the blood of Calvary, to 
join him in renewed consecration of body, soul 



103 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



and spirit, time, talent and wealth, to the work 
of saving a guilty, ruined race! Incidental ben- 
efits of division, disunion, alienation among the 
disciples of Jesus, all jointly and severally ex- 
pectants of a heavenly inheritance! O, man of 
God! tell us rather of the blessed effects of una- 
nimity of sentiment, similarity of practice, prev- 
alence of brotherly love, holy consolidation into 
one Apostolic Church, with one name, one heart, 
one way, one object, affectionately cooperating 
in the Master's service. Tell us of that desirable 
period when the Church shall become all that the 
prophets predicted, all that the Saviour desired, 
all that the apostles labored to make her. There 
is to be such a period, when "the light of the 
moon shall be as the light of the sun; and the 
light of the sun seven-fold, as the light of seven 
days ; " and that shall be " in the day that the 
Lord btndeth up the breach of his people, 
axd healeth the stroke of their wound." 
Tell us, servant of Jesus, what shall be the spirit- 
ual glories of those " last days," when " the moun- 
tain of the Lord's house shall be established on 
the top of the mountains and exalted above the 
hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." Tell us 
of the period of the Church's unity, and what are 
the signs of its coming. Tell us how she will 
appear, and what she will do, when she shall be 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



109 



cordially, really one in Christ, her living, ruling 
Head. "Clothed with the sun/' what Trill be her 
influence upon a dark and sterile world? Com- 
prehending within herself, by virtue of her union 
with her Lord, all the elements of moral might; 
"endued, as of old, with power from on high;*' 
how rapidly will her conquests be achieved, and 
the seventh angel be permitted to sound, and 
great voices be heard on high, proclaiming that 
" the kingdoms of this world are become the 
kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he 
shall reisjn forever and ever ! M 

10 



110 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



III. 

SOME METHODS BY WHICH OUR OWN DENOMINA- 
TION MAY PROBABLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE PRO- 
MOTION OF CHRISTIAN FRATERNITY . 

I come now, dear "brother, to the consideration 
of a branch of my subject that is chiefly practical. 
Let ns again bow together before " the Father of 
lights," and beseech him, for the Saviour's sake, 
to bestow upon ns liberally that illuminating and 
sanctifying Influence which alone can lead us into a 
thorough knowledge of his perfect will, and incline 
our hearts to do whatsoever may appear to be duty. 
"The meek will he guide in judgment; and the 
meek will he teach his way." 

I suppose that we, as a denomination, may not 
take it for granted that we are wholly free from 
responsibility touching the prevalent disunion of 
Christians, or that we have nothing to do towards 
the healing of the breaches that have so long and 
so injuriously divided the people of God. We 
may not be wrong to an extent that will require a 
general or even a partial recession from the trusted 
platform on which our ecclesiastical organizations 
have so long immovably reposed. As I have not 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



Ill 



intermeddled with the fundamental principles of 
other denominations, so I shall leave ours un- 
touched ; and, in pursuing this course, I am influ- 
enced, not only by an unwillingness to bring con- 
stitutional questions into the discussion, but also 
by the clear conviction, that, until some previous 
matters shall have received careful attention, not 
one of the denominations will be prepared even 
to examine specific plans of union. Such plans 
have already been proposed ; but, as they have 
generally commenced with the assumption that 
the proposing party is right and the others are 
wrong, they have necessarily failed to win general 
ia v or ; and this uniform failure, together "with some 
acquaintance with human nature, has led me to the 
conclusion, that nothing so radical can be accom- 
plished until hearts shall be made better, and 
tongues more regulated by the law of love, and 
pens dipped more exclusively in the spirit of 
Calvary. 

By commencing at once those preliminary im- 
provements that shall clear the way to the funda- 
mental elements of a scriptural union, and thus 
prepare the whole body of believers to perceive 
the true basis on which Christ would have us har- 
moniously unite and affectionately cooperate, we 
may render to ourselves, and. by the force of ex- 
ample, to our brethren of every name, a valuable 



112 CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 

service. To this end, we should endeavor to obtain 
distinct and correct views of the deplorable effects 
of schism, as exhibited in the history of the past, 
as daily developed in our own times, and as likely 
to become apparent in the disclosures of the fu- 
ture. Let us conceal nothing from ourselves ; let 
us open our minds to the full impression which the 
facts will assuredly make upon the considerate and 
candid. Let us also anticipate, as we certainly 
may, without any improper license of the imagina- 
tion, the delightful influence upon the Church and 
the world of that cordial union which all agree to 
be desirable. More than all, let us take a midnight 
walk with Jesus from the table of the Eucharist to 
the Garden of Sorrows, and, as we passover " the 
brook in the way," hear him plead for the oneness 
of his disciples in ail lands, all ages of the world. 
Our minds may thus be made tender and suscep- 
tible, and ready to welcome suggestions of a still 
more definite and practical character. 

1. WE MAY ENDEAVOR, CAREFULLY, TO DISPOSSESS 
OURSELVES OF THE SPIRIT OF SECT. 

This spirit I have shown to be the fruitful source 
of innumerable evils ; and, however difficult it may 
be, so long as Christians retain their sectarian or- 
ganizations, to dislodge it effectually from their 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



113 



bosoms, yet I know not how, until this be done, 
they can rationally hope for any thorough, satis- 
factory reform. Let these organizations be broken 
up to-day, and, if the spirit that has so long main- 
tained them be not also destroyed, the mass would 
separate again to-morrow and crystallize afresh 
around their old centres, as indisposed as ever 
to a general consolidation. These special affini- 
ties, constituting no essential part of Christian 
character, must yield to the paramount law of 
cohesion, — the great law of love, — including su- 
preme love to Christ, reverent love to his truth, 
unreserved love to one another ; and then com- 
bination will be easy, for it will be natural. The 
spirit of sect is the principal antagonist to Chris- 
tian fraternity ; for while, by a process all its own, 
it unites a certain portion, it as surely, by the 
same process, repels all the remainder. So long, 
therefore, as it exists in a single mind, there cannot 
be entire Christian union. 

That this spirit has its home among us to a 
greater extent than in other denominations, I have 
no reason to believe ; but that it exists and operates 
among us, my observation will not allow me to 
question. The number who are entirely free from 
it are, I fear, not a large majority. It crops out at 
innumerable points, indicating that more is beneath. 
On almost all occasions, private and public, it is 
10* 



114 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



more or less apparent — V esprit du corps — giving 
cast and coloring to much that is felt, and said, and 
done. That it is the main-spring of Baptist activ- 
ity in the religious department, it would be un- 
just to intimate ; but that it is a spring of no 
small power, we must honestly concede. It is visi- 
ble in our benevolent operations, our periodical 
press, our denominational literature, our schools, 
colleges, and theological institutions ; in our men, 
women, a'nd children; in our prayers, preaching, 
and almost every form of evangelical effort. It is 
not, as we are Christians, the principal element of 
our religious character ; but it is, as we are im- 
perfect Christians, an element mingled with and 
corrupting that which had a better origin. It 
works covertly, damaging character by the subtle 
delusion that love of sect is brotherly love, and 
what we do for sect we do for Christ. We feel so 
sure that we are right in all respects, as practically 
to make the kingdom of heaven on earth, and our 
own denomination one and the same. In this we 
do not excel others; but, in our measure, we re- 
semble them. 

Xow, difficult as may be the service here recom- 
mended, of removing a spirit that has become in- 
corporated into our nature and habits, so as to 
seem utterly inextricable, — a spirit to which nutri- 
ment is ministered from so many sources; and 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 115 

more difficult as it may be to effect the disloclgement 
of a spirit of whose presence and malign agency 
the possessed themselves are not conscious, — still 
there is no impossibility in the case ; for what 
ought to be done, can be done ; and the bare knowl- 
edge of the magnitude and heinousness of the evil, 
and of the incalculable benefits that would result 
from its thorough repudiation, imposes upon me 
and you and every Christian the duty of attempt- 
ing its immediate and entire removal. We should 
all search our hearts, as the Hebrews searched 
their dwellings for every remnant of the forbidden 
leaven ; and we should, with perseverance and holy 
hatred, trace the unhallowed spirit in all its dark 
and sinuous retreats, and, giving no quarter, seek 
its complete extermination. The sectarian spirit! 
What argument can be adduced for its allowed 
existence in any shape or for any purpose, that 
may not be pleaded for the perpetuity of schism 
with all its progeny of abominations ? If this 
spirit, which is the parent and prime nurse of all 
our disunion, may be spared from annihilation or 
even reprehension, then may we, then must we 
spare also our execrations of the divisions which 
it engenders and nourishes. Tolerate the mother 
of the diabolical brood, and the offspring will not 
soon become less numerous or less thrifty. 

The spirit of sect is not the spirit of Christ. By 



116 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



no power of sectarian alchyrny can it be transmuted 
into anything valuable. To the unpractised eye, 
it may be made to resemble that element of holi- 
ness upon which the New Testament so largely 
insists — love to the brethren; but it is the resem- 
blance of a gilded spuriousness to a heaven-coined 
reality. The more we have of it, the poorer we 
are; for it not only constitutes no part of the "true 
riches " of Christian character, but is worse than 
worthless, occupying that place in the mind which 
ought to be " filled with all the fulness of God." 

Should you inquire what method I would pro- 
pose for the removal of this wicked spirit, I reply, 
that we are to put it away as we would any other 
sinful affection that is deeply rooted. Something 
may be accomplished by imitating the practical 
farmer, w T ho kills out the noxious from the soil by 
planting and cultivating the useful. But, in mul- 
titudes of minds, a sterner and more radical process 
will be requisite; for the vice has struck its tap- 
root far down into the soul, and its thousand 
branches and minuter filaments have extended into 
every department of the moral nature. " Break 
up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns." 
Any one who is acquainted with the natural his- 
tory of sectarianism, would conclude, a priori, that 
" This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fast- 
ing." We must repent before God, and the Church, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



117 



and the World, that we have ever cherished a spirit 
so dishonorable to Christianity, so ruinous to souls; 
and our repentance must be of that effectual kind 
which uproots and flings away all uncharitableness, 
and prepares the soul for the full, unobstructed 
growth of that " perfect love " which takes to its 
bosom all the good in the universe. And con- 
nected with this there must be prayer : " Create 
in me a clean heart, 0 God ! and renew a right 
spirit within me." 

2. WE MAY CULTIVATE A HIGHER DEGREE OF PER- 
SONAL HOLINESS. 

Sen is, in the moral world, the fatal cause of re- 
pulsion and separation. It is the occasion of those 
conflicts which disturb the inward tranquillity of 
the individual ; and to its influence we may trace 
the disorder and confusion that are everywhere 
reckoned as social evils. Just in proportion as sin 
exists in any community, is it impossible to make 
the moral elements cohere; for its nature is to make 
men unlike to one another, and therefore unlike to 
any common standard of character. Hence the 
inspired declaration — " The founder melteth in 
vain, for the wicked are not plucked away." 

Holiness is the great assimilating, combining, 
cementing principle of the moral world. It har- 



118 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



monizes the faculties and affections of the individ- 
ual, and produces that internal adjustment and con- 
cord which the Scriptures denominate "peace," — 
"The peace of God which passeth all understand- 
ing." So, also, by bringing numbers into harmony 
with the laws under which God has placed them, 
and thus conforming them to a common model, 
holiness makes them resemble one another, and 
then they come together by the law of simple 
affinity. Just in proportion, therefore, to the de- 
gree of holiness in the members of any social 
organization, will be the sincerity of their mutual 
attachment, the strength of their adhesion, and the 
solidity and indissolubleness of their union. In 
heaven, the unanimity and the fellowship are per- 
fect, because all the constituents of that happy 
society are not only sinless, but consciously, ac- 
tively holy. So, in the Church below, were we 
" perfect," we should " walk by the same rule, and 
mind the same thing." Christ is the Source of the 
attractive power to ^all his people, whether in the 
world of glory, or in this state of discipline, draw- 
ing them all into oneness around himself; and, as a 
necessary consequence, the nearer they are to him, 
the Centre of the moral sphere, the nearer they are 
to one another. 

Who does not kriow that the more spiritual and 
heavenly-minded Christians become, the more are 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



119 



they dispossessed of sectarian feelings, and the 
less easily are they confined within sectarian inclo- 
sures ? Who has not seen the more devoted and 
Christ-like of every denomination exhibit their 
peculiar affinity, by associating for the enjoyment 
of that endeared communion which they find in 
familiar conversation upon gracious subjects, and 
in joint addresses to the throne of heavenly grace? 
Opposed to everything like schism, and therefore 
unwilling to draw another dividing line by form- 
ing another party, they do not quit their respective 
Churches, but continue as ever to perform the 
duties to which they are pledged by covenant rela- 
tion. But, as opportunity presents, they go to 
" their own company," to cultivate the friendship 
of the holiest they can find, and to open their 
hearts to such as can fully sympathize with their 
widened views and deepened feelings. 

" For the divisions of Reuben there were great 
searchings of heart." The obstacles that interfere 
with Christian union may all be referred to one 
source, the heart. The difficulty, therefore, is 
moral rather than physical or intellectual, and 
is to be overcome by moral means — by means 
directed convergently to the source of the evil. 
Christians may be brought together, as they are, 
and induced for a season to cooperate as if sin- 
cerely united. A conviction of necessity may 



120 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



apply such pressure as shall procure a mechanical 
union that shall be of some advantage so long as 
it lasts. But no sooner is that particular force 
withdrawn than the elements separate as before, 
indulging, perhaps, some self-complacency in the 
faithfulness Trith "which they have observed the 
truce, and kept the belligerent spirit in temporary 
abeyance. The union needed is such a union of 
souls as nothing can effectuate but the heavenly 
chemistry of holiness, that mighty principle which 
assimilates hearts and welds them together. 
How concentrated and combined were the affec- 
tions of those growing thousands in the primitive 
Church ! " The multitude of them that believed 
were of owe heart/' Their purity of character 
— made such by the baptism of fire — contributed 
to then- union, and their warm fraternal fellowship 
supplied facilities for still higher attainments in 
the divine life. " Great grace was upon them 
ail/' 

To this j^oint, then, we ought to give immediate 
and earnest attention, for really it is a matter of 
primary interest. Serious as are the obstacles to 
the growth of individual piety which are inter- 
posed by the divisions of Christians, and especially 
by the prevalent spirit of sect, still they are not 
insuperable. Thousands who have worn the party 
name, and sustained the party relation, have 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 121 

thrown from them the shackles of all party spirit, 
and risen superior to all party influences, and 
walked on high with God, in sweet companionship 
with the holy of all ages and all communions. 
But it is impossible that Christians, with their 
present measure of piety, should become generally 
one. They have too little disinterested love. 
Their conformity to their blessed Head is too 
incomplete. They have within them too many 
sinful elements to admit of happy, permanent 
cohesion. These elements, such as pride, selfish- 
ness, love of the world, emulation, self-esteem, 
and numerous concomitant evils of a partially 
sanctified nature, must be thoroughly extirpated 
from individual minds before they can be qualified 
candidates for such fellowship as Christ and his 
apostles commended. That union does not sub- 
sist in any denomination — certainly not in ours. 
We agree in some things ; but we are not one 
according to the New Testament pattern. I ques- 
tion if true gospel unity can be found in any 
Church of an hundred members on the face of the 
earth. No church, no denomination is yet within 
itself holy enough to make its own unanimity 
more than approximate. Allowing, therefore, that 
our creed and practice and ecclesiastical polity are 
preeminently scriptural, and that all denominations 
of Christians, as the result of intelligent convic- 

11 



122 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



tion, should adopt them, and thus occupy with us 
a common platform, there would not, there could 
not, be true gospel union, ~We are not united 
among ourselves ; they are not united among 
themselves. A conjunction of any number of dis- 
united bodies would never make one accordant 
and harmonious compound. Let us not deceive 
ourselves. The holiness of the denominations — 
our own holiness — is not yet such as to justify 
the hope that any combining process would be 
extensively successful. The attempt, in the pres- 
ent condition of things, would jDrobably result in 
the creation of a new sect. "We all need a much 
larger measure of the Divine Influence to remove 
our prejudices, to clarify our spiritual vision, to 
impregnate our minds with the love of pure truth, 
to assimilate us more completely to the great Mag- 
net of the universe — the Crucified One. When 
these results are accomplished in us, — and accom- 
plished they may be, and should be, — then shall 
we be prepared for union, and then, doubtless, we 
shall be more attractive as well as more attracted 
than we now are. 

Many other reasons might be suggested why we 
should cultivate a higher degree of personal holi- 
ness; but my present object confines me to this 
one point — the indispensableness of an advanced 
state of piety to the promotion of true Christian 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



123 



union. We are deficient in that "godliness" 
which " is profitable nnto all things," and there- 
fore profitable to the harmonizing of separated 
and alienated brethren. We have devoted much 
to the outward of Christianity ; let us turn our 
care to the inward, and give more to the culture 
of piety and holy living by faith on the Son of 
God. Let us endeavor, by all the helps of Divine 
grace, to kill out more effectually the selfishness 
of our natures, and cultivate a supreme regard for 
the glory of Christ. Happy would it be for us 
and for others, would we but strive, " according 
to the power that worketh in us," to be more 
Christ-like, to be " crucified with Christ," to be 
" made conformable to his death," to be " sanctified 
wholly," to have our " whole body and soul and 
spirit preserved blameless," to be " filled with the 
Spirit," and so to follow the Saviour as that we 
" shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of 
life." The end to be sought is of incalculable 
importance. As a means for its attainment, our 
greatly increased sanctification is indispensable. 
The perfection of Christian union depends upon 
perfection of Christian character. For holiness, 
then, we should individually, unanimously, vigor- 
ously strive ; and as we press on towards higher 
and still higher attainments, let us avail ourselves 
of the fulness of provision in the Dispensation of 



124 



CHRISTIAN" BROTHERHOOD. 



Grace, which is pree min ently the Dispensation of 
the Spirit. 

3. WE ilAT ILLUSTRATE, BY OUR PRACTICE, 
THE GREAT PRINCIPLE, THAT THE WORD OF GOD 
IS THE SOLE AUTHORIZED STANDARD IX ALL MAT- 
TERS OF RELIGION". 

The falsities of the Roman Antichrist may be 
generalized under three heads. 

1. That a knowledge of religious truth and 
duty is to be derived, not exclusively from the 
Sacred Scriptures, but also and largely from other 
sources, as tradition, the writings of the Fathers, 
the opinions of the prelates, and especially of the 
Pope, and the adjudications of Councils. Vox 
Ecclesiai vox Dei, is the idea, to repudiate which 
is fatal heresy. The Church, that is, the hier- 
archy, is not only the interpreter of God's com- 
munications, but is also the authorized teacher 
of much that God has left otherwise unrevealed. 
The Bible, thus interpreted, is only one source of 
religious knowledge, and is not of itself sufficient 
to direct a sinner in the way of salvation. 

2. That the righteousness of Christ received by 
faith is not the sole ground of a sinners accept- 
ance with God; but that other things are to be 
recognized as meritorious causes of eternal life : 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 125 

among which are, a particular relation to the 
Church of Rome; various ceremonial observances, 
such as fasts, penances, pilgrimages, invocations of 
the saints and the Virgin, confessions, masses, pe- 
cuniary contributions ; and especially the supera- 
bundant holiness of the saints deposited in the 
Church, as a treasure, to supply the deficiency 
of Christ's merits, and subject to the disposal of 
the Pope and his authorized subordinates. 

3. That the regeneration of a sinner is not 
effected entirely by the agency of the Holy Spirit, 
or even by the Spirit and the Word combined, 
but in part, if not mainly, by the influence of 
certain prescribed ceremonies which are repre- 
sented as indispensable, not only as the mediums 
of the Divine Influence, but also as possessing in 
themselves a saving efficiency. 

It was against these three falsehoods, in par- 
ticular, so fatally subversive of the whole Chris- 
tian system, that the partially enlightened and 
bold Reformers of the sixteenth century vehe- 
mently protested, and from whose baneful influ- 
ence they vigorously endeavored to disenthral not 
only themselves, but their deluded contemporaries. 
Hence, they brought out prominently the three 
great principles of immortal Truth: 

The Bible, the only authoritative source of 
religious knowledge. 

11* 



126 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



The Righteousness of Christ, received by 
faith, the only ground of a sinners justification 
before God. 

The Holy Spirit, the all-sufficient Agent in 
the production of spiritual life in the soul of 
man. 

This trinity of propositions they held up to the 
wondering nations, and faithful history informs us 
of the power which God gave them in the eman- 
cipation of enslaved millions. 

The effort to restore the Bible to its proper 
place in human estimation, was the result of a 
clear conviction that this Volume, the Gift of 
God, teaches all we need to know and to do in 
the department of Religion. The writings of the 
Reformers, though marred by some errors, abound 
with propositions and explanations which show 
conclusively how correct was their general theory; 
and in their zealous, self-denying, and often peril- 
ous endeavors to supply the people, in their own 
tongues, with the whole Book of God, we find 
their practice happily consistent with their theory. 
And from their day to ours, the tongues and the 
pens of Protestant Christians have rej)eated and 
multiplied the declarations of those giants of Re- 
form; and, during the last half century, numer- 
ous Bible associations have practically demon- 
strated that the principles avowed are not the 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



127 



rhapsodies of sentiment, but the deliberate con- 
victions of the understanding and the warm attes- 
tations of the heart. Who, of Protestant pro- 
clivities, has not admired, and quoted with his 
own endorsement, that terse, expressive proposi- 
tion of the learned Chiliingworth : " The Bible, 
the Bible, I say, the Bible only is the religion of 
Protestants ? " And well did he add in the next 
sentence: "Whatsoever else they may believe as 
a matter of faith and religion, they cannot do it 
with coherence to their own grounds, nor require 
the belief of it in others, without most high and 
most schismatieal presumption." 

Yet, strong as have been the declarations of 
all Protestants upon this subject, and much as 
they have contributed towards the translation and 
distribution of the Bible, it may be a question if 
Protestants, of all denominations, have not more 
or less violated the great Principle which they have 
so often and so eloquently advocated. Luther 
said that " every man is born with a Pope in his 
heart." The errors of the papacy seem to be in- 
digenous to human nature; and it would not be 
remarkable, if the best of men, partially sanctified, 
should betray the presence of some remnants of 
the old leaven. But how stands the fact? Do 
Protestants confine themselves to the Word of 
God as their sole instructor in religious truth and 



128 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



duty? 1 One of the most able and fascinating 
writers of modern times has drawn a beautiful 
wbrd-pictnre in the following form : " All the doc- 
tors, Greek, Latin, French, Swiss, German, Eng- 
lish, American, placed in the jDresence of the 
Word of God, are, altogether, only disciples who 
are receiving instruction. Men of the first times, 
men of the last, we are all alike 'up on the benches 
of the Divine School ; and in the chair of instruc- 
tion, around which we are humbly assembled, 
nothing appears, nothing* elevates itself but the 
infallible Word of God. I perceive in that vast 

1 The Reformation in Germany turned entirely upon this 
principle : " The Fathers must be tried by the Scriptures, and 
not the Scriptures by the Fathers." Then, when Luther, aided 
by Melanethon, had made the Bible common by his translation, 
and announced the clearness and certainty of its truths, with- 
out the aid of commentators; then it was that the errors of 
Popery, one by one, lost their hold upon the minds of the 
people, and a oneness of sentiment and faith was given to the 
whole body of reformers and their disciples everywhere, that 
vibrated at all points of Christendom, and put a newness of 
face on the kingdom of Christ. We, even in these days, have 
in some measure degenerated from the sacred oracles. We 
have had recourse to waters, collected from the living fountain, 
only in the receptacles in which human authors have deposited 
them, and where they are impregnated with the qualities of the 
fallible and fallen minds that have distributed them. "We must 
drink these waters in greater purity, by retracing our steps to 
their source. — Dr. Lief child. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



129 



auditory, Calvin, Luther, Cranmer, Augustine, 
Chrysostoni, Athanasius, Cyprian, by the side of 
our coteniporaries." 1 If this be taken as a repre- 
sentation of what should be, it is more than beau- 
tiful, — the conception is sublime. If I am de- 
sired to regard it as descriptive of actual fact, I 
pause and consider. Passing over the "men of 
the first times" as the lights of a period long 
anterior to the Reformation, and even to the gen- 
eral triumph of the papacy "whose coming was 
after the working of Satan, with all power and 
signs and lying wonders," I would respectfully 
inquire if the "men of the last times," commenc- 
ing with Martin Luther and ending with whom 
you please, have practically earned out in their 
formularies of doctrine and practice the boasted 
principle, "The Bible only the religion of Prot- 
estants?" It is no part of my purpose to detect 
and expose the inconsistencies and infirmities of 
others ; I design merely to intimate that the loud 
proclamation and earnest advocacy of a great 
Truth is not always accompanied by a full sub- 
mission to that Truth in its practical require- 
ments ; and that if this incongruity may be found 
in others, we may not take it for granted that 
we are wholly exempt from it ourselves. 

1 Puseyism Examined; "by J. H. Merle <T Aubigne'. 



130 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



We are not strictly a Protestant denomination. 
We are, many of us, descendants of those brave 
men and women who protested against the abom- 
inations of Rome ; but, as a Christian sect, we are 
not the offspring of the Reformation. Our name 
is nothing but a discriminative title, denoting at 
first but a single peculiarity, now standing for a 
class of ideas, and could easily be dismissed for 
the more comprehensive and original appellation, 
Christian. But our principles are older than 
the papacy, — older than all the corruptions of 
ecclesiastical Catholicism. Along the ages there 
were a series of good men who maintained those 
principles, and protested against the perversion 
of evangelical Christianity and the schisms of the 
Christian Church ; and to them we claim affinity. 
If it be asked where we were during the excit- 
ing and tumultuous scenes of the Reformation, I 
answer that, although few and feeble and scat- 
tered, we were there, not bearing indeed our 
present name, nor yet the name Anabaptist, 1 but 
advocating essentially our distinctive principles, 

1 ISTo pains have been spared to trace our paternity to the 
Anabaptists of central Europe, a fanatical sect, of whom it 
has never been proved that they were immersionists. They 
repeated the rite, generally in the common form of the age, 
simply to render it valid ; not as performed in a better mode, 
but by better hands. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



131 



and endeavoring to commend them to the recep- 
tion of both the reformers and the reformed. 
Ever from the days of the Apostles we have pro- 
fessed to regard the Word of God as the only 
authentic source of religious knowledge, the sole 
arbiter of truth in all questions of religious faith 
and practice. The great Protestant sentiment 
upon this subject has always been ours ; and 
neither Melancthon, nor Chillingworth, nor even 
the learned Professor at Geneva^ ever constructed 
stronger utterances in its favor than have come 
from the lips and the j)ens of our brethren at all 
points along the line of our lengthened history. 
Our antiquity as a sect is of minor consequence ; 
but we do attach value to the continuity of cer- 
tain principles, commencing in the apostolic age, 
and running unbroken through the ages of papal 
error. We still avow the Bible to be the only 
authoritative Book of the Church, the only Rule 
of Christian faith and conduct, the Judge to whom 
in all religious questions our appeal is to be made, 
and whose decisions alone are ultimate and bind- 
ing. Whoever may say, " To the Bible and Tra- 
dition," we are accustomed unanimously to say, 
"To the Law and to the Testimony," or, "To the 
Bible only." 

After such statements, the inquiry may be 
started: "What more, my brother, do you de- 



132 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



sire ? " Nothing more, certainly, by way of pro- 
fession. The theory is " perfect and entire, want- 
ing nothing." And is it not equally perfect in 
the spoken and the written professions of other 
evangelical denominations, whose practice, in some 
respects, we think, contradicts or ignores the prin- 
ciple? It may, therefore, be an unexpected, if 
not an unwelcome, question, if we do practically 
make the Bible our exclusive standard of truth and 
duty in religion. I ask not if our system of be- 
lief is concurrent with the teachings of the Sacred 
Scriptures ; or, if the Christian ordinances, as ad- 
ministered by us, are essentially after the primi- 
tive pattern ; or, if our ecclesiastical organizations 
are such as the Apostles, in our circumstances, 
would be likely to adopt ; because these questions 
may, for the present, be answered in the affirma- 
tive, and yet the inquiry be legitimately urged, 
if we actually treat the Bible as we profess to 
regard it; if we do ourselves repair directly and 
exclusively to the Word of God for our religious 
knowledge ; if our profession of the Christian 
faith, and our connection with a particular body 
of Christians are the results of our own inves- 
tigations and intelligent convictions. Has tradi- 
tion no authority with us? Has the education 
we received anterior to our conversion no influ- 
ence in modifying our opinions and practices? 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



133 



Are we never drawn into the Churches of which 
we are members by the power of example, of 
sympathy, of natural relationship, or of partiality 
to the "ministers by whom we believed," or by 
whose labors we are particularly edified? Has 
the Bible with us supreme authority, not only in 
theory but also in fact? Is it the Law of our 
hearts, our lips, our lives ? Is it always the mas- 
ter, and never the servant, of our reason ? 

Perhaps no people are more accustomed than 
we to say to converts and to all inquirers after 
truth, " Go to the Scriptures. Read candidly and 
prayerfully, and there ascertain what you are to 
believe and what you are to practise." And yet, 
do we never depart from this most commendable 
advice by throwing in something else to incline 
inquirers in a desired direction? Do we trust 
them with the Bible only ? Do we never inter- 
pose the influence of names, — the names of ex- 
cellent men who thought and acted, as we think, 
rightly? We complain of others, and not with- 
out occasion, that they distribute tracts and books 
adapted to sectarian purposes. Do we never 
recommend and circulate human productions, as 
if something more than the Bible were neces- 
sary to lead perplexed minds to our conclusions ? 
Of the numerous thousands who are every year 
identifying themselves with us by a Christian pro- 
12 



134 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



fession, how many can truly say that the Bible 
only is their Directory, — the lamp unto their feet 
and the light unto their path? What is the de- 
sign, and what are the practical tendencies, of the 
"denominational literature" for the young and 
the old? Are our rising ministry never instructed 
in systems of divinity which others have prepared 
for their benefit ? Those systems may be strictly 
scriptural ; but do they who receive them always 
know by personal investigation that they embody 
the truth of God ? And when they are supplied 
with " rules of interpretation," and told to apply 
them for themselves, are those rules not unfre- 
quently such as are expected and intended to 
bring out certain results? Is Ecclesiastical His- 
tory never made with us, as well as with others, 
to mould and modify our theological doctrines 
and our views of Church polity? Do we never, 
in a Summary of Faith, submit for examination 
a series of doctrinal propositions, or preceptive 
instructions, and recommend that they be com- 
pared with the Scriptures? And are not the 
points thus presented intended to be like the 
posts in a certain kind of fence, while the proof- 
texts to be culled from the Bible are, like flexile 
osiers, to be wattled in to complete the structure ? 

Have you never thought, my brother, of a pecu- 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



135 



liar fact in the history of theological institutions ? 
The different sects have these "schools of the 
prophets," in all of which it is professed that a 
Biblical theology is taught. They certainly differ 
more or less in their instructions, else they might 
be consolidated, and, as I have shown, save ex- 
pense, and make a better moral impression upon 
the community. They certainly train their candi- 
dates for the pulpit differently, and send them 
out for services that differ. Does not the spirit 
of sect rule largely in these institutions ? If not ; 
if the Bible is made the authoritative Guide, lead 
where it may ; if the pupils are encouraged to 
make independent investigations, and taught to 
submit their reasons to the clearly ascertained 
will of God, — how shall we account for it that 
they x so uniformly emerge as they entered, with 
no change but a confirmation of their preexist ent 
opinions, and firmer fixedness in their sectarian 
relations ? And if the leaders are thus trained in 
a system, where the Bible is made to serve rather 
than rule, it cannot surprise us that the masses 
should follow their predilections, and seldom in- 
quire "What saith the Lord?" 

At the Council of Trent it is said that a copy 
of the Bible was placed upon an elevated throne, 
richly upholstered, in token of its supremacy. Yet 
the worthies there assembled proceeded to settle 



136 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



great questions of doctrine and polity without 
once referring to the Book thus nominally en- 
throned. Their action, if not designedly, was 
actually as bitter mockery of the inspired Vol- 
ume, as was the conduct of another group, who 
put upon Christ a purple robe, and a reed in 
his hand! From that epoch, a new starting- 
point in the bloody march of spiritual despotism, 
the Bible ceased to be allowed even the appear- 
ance of supremacy, and its royal position was 
usurped by decrees and formularies of human 
manufacture. We lay the Bible upon our high 
places, both at home and in the house of worship, 
and treat it objectively with great outward respect ; 
but do we really pay it all the reverence which 
these formalities would indicate? Does it hold 
the primary place as our Teacher of truth and 
duty? 

We are constantly saying that if all Christians, 
with minds completely dispossessed of prejudice, 
and sincerely desirous to learn the divine will in 
order that they might do it, would devoutly repair 
to the Bible, and the Bible only, for information, 
they would not fail of their object ; they would 
assuredly come into " the unity of the faith ." And 
who can dispute the correctness of this assertion ? 
Did not the Saviour say that if any man would 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



137 



do his Father's will he should oow the real 
truth? The Scriptures are not like the heathen 
oracles, equivocal or enigmatical, nor are they " of 
any private interpretation." If they were, how 
could they be " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness?" 
They are a Revelation — an diroKaXvijjis — of the 
will of God, containing the doctrines which he 
would have us believe, and the precepts which he 
would have us obey. He has informed us of the 
simple conditions upon which we may ascertain 
the meaning of this Paternal Gift, and these may 
be comprised under four heads : 

That our motive in all be to glorify Him ; 

That we diligently search the Scriptures ; 

That we search them with childlike docility ; 

That we search with the spirit of obedience. 
If all would follow his directions, they would learn 
his meaning, and therefore agree in their conclu- 
sions. To suppose it might be otherwise, w^ould 
be to destroy confidence in the Scriptures, and 
impeach the wisdom, the veracity, and the good- 
ness of their Divine Author. 

But while such are the views that we proclaim, 
and that are not ours exclusively, we must not 
take it amiss if a question should be raised as to 
our consistency of practice. Do we examine the 
Word of God free from all prejudice or preposses- 

12* 



138 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



sion, entirely divested of the spirit of sect; and 
are our investigations prosecuted with that docile 
and obedient spirit , and with that purity of mo- 
tive, which are indispensable to the certain discov- 
ery of the Divine will ? If the Bible were now 
for the first time put into our hands as the one and 
only source of religious truth, are our minds in the 
proper attitude for the ascertainment of its true 
import ? Are we sure that the conclusions to 
which we should come are identical with the prop- 
ositions set forth in our present creeds, or summa- 
ries of faith and practice ? Have we embraced 
these propositions because we first found them 
clearly taught in the Scriptures ; or have we 
embraced them and committed ourselves to their 
defence, and afterwards looked for them, and found 
them the more easily in the Divine Word? I 
may be told that it matters very little how we 
came by our religious theory, provided we can 
prove it by the Scriptures. To such a pleader I 
respectfully reply, that unless he has, by personal 
investigation, made in the spirit of candor, with 
prayer for Divine illumination, and with honest 
practical intentions, derived his articles of belief 
directly from the Sacred Volume, he has no right 
to say that they are scriptural. He should know 
that almost anything may be "proved" by frag- 
mentary citations from Scripture wrested from 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



130 



their connections, and that his proof-texts may, 
by a process of subornation, be false "witnesses. 
Surely, there is a wide difference between hearing 
with docility what God says, and using his testi- 
mony to confirm what man says. Besides, he 
should not forget that in his treatment of the 
Scriptures, he is not such an one as God has prom- 
ised to " guide in judgment," and to "teach his 
way." He has not only violated his own principle 
— " The Bible only is my religion " — but he has 
deviated widely from the Divine directions touch- 
ing the discovery of truth, and therefore "the 
secret of the Lord " is not with him. He has not 
talked with Jesus by the way, and had the Scrip- 
tures opened to him by their heavenly Author; 
but he has embraced his system of theological 
theses, and then brought them to the inspired 
Word for corroboration. The Jews at Berea were 
"more noble" than this; they heard what Paul 
and Silas had to say, and were deeply interested 
in their interpretations and appeals ; but they did 
not embrace the views presented, until they had 
carefully "searched the Scriptures daily whether 
those thing were so." Were I addressing him, 
instead of you, I would say: No, my brother; 
unless you have come unprejudiced, and free from 
all party bias, and with a truly humble, docile 
spirit, to the prayerful study of the Bible, you are 



140 CHEI5TIAN BROTHERHOOD. 

not authorized to say that your system is scrip- 
tural. It may be so, because others before you 
may have fairly drawn it from the Fountain of 
living Truth ; but you do not know it to be so, 
and all your selected proof-texts will never justify 
you in the use of very positive language respecting 
it. Tou have embraced the system without know- 
ing it to be scriptural, and for other reasons than 
its Biblical verification ; and, more than this, yon 
have foreclosed the only avenue leading to that 
solid ground of certainty on which yon might 
stand erect and challenge contradiction. Say not, 
then, that it is of little importance how yon came 
into possession of your views, provided yon can 
quote Scripture in their support. The question. 
Is the system yours ? is legitimate and deserving 
of a considerate reply. A good tide is of some 
importance in our religious as well as our secular 
affairs. 

But the position thus assumed is indefensible in 
another respect. It practically undervalues the 
Word of God, and justifies the course of those 
denominations who resort occasionally to other 
sources of religious knowledge. They say, a The 
Bible, the Bible only," and yet in practice it is Tra- 
dition, or the Fathers, or Ecclesiastical History, or 
Articles, Homilies, Standards of Faith, Confes- 
sions, or something else in addition to the Bible. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



141 



We say, " The Bible, the Bible only.*' and yet, 
according to your theory, we may receive from 
some other source our theological principles, and 
employ the Bible merely for their confirmation 
and sanction. Thus perpetrating the very wrong 
which we profess to condemn, and. which, perhaps 
boastfully, we allege that we avoid, our teachings 
are impaired in force by an inconsistent example. 

The various plans of union which have been 
proposed and recommended have seemed to recog- 
nize the practicability of Christians coming to- 
gether and being one without agreement in belief 
and practice. It may be presumptuous in me to 
express a doubt of the possibility of such an 
union ; but the doubt is deeply fixed in my mind, 
and every new examination of the facts confirms 
it. I hear God inquiring, " Can two walk together 
except they be agreed?" and I understand the 
interrogation as involving a decided negative. If 
the fellowship of two, the smallest number, be 
impossible without agreement, I conclude that the 
same impossibility extends to a thousand or a mil- 
lion who may disagree. Any number of individ- 
uals can walk together so far as they are agreed, 
provided they consent to hold in abeyance the 
points respecting which they differ ; but by a fixed 
law their real union cannot be stretched beyond 
the particulars in which they concur. I suppose 



142 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD, 



that Christian union must have its basis in una- 
nimity touching everything which the Scriptures 
make essential to Christian character and the Chris- 
tian life. The union of the primitive Church was 
unquestionably of this kind. In matters pertaining 
to which they had no Divine instruction, they may 
have differed, nay, they did differ, and the Apostles 
advised them to be forbearing and charitable re- 
specting those differences; but in all that Christ 
and his inspired servants taught them to believe 
and do, they were agreed and united. Theirs, 
therefore, was not merely an union of hearts, but 
also an union of minds. Their religious convictions 
were coincident; their religious practice was uni- 
form. The word of God was to them supreme 
authority, and that word they interpreted alike, 

One of the modes, then, by which we may pro- 
mote that union among God's children which we 
acknowledge to be desirable, is to promote agree- 
ment among them with respect to Christian truth 
and duty. And this may be done by encouraging, 
in every practicable way, the careful, candid, de- 
vout study of the Scriptures as the one source of 
religious knowledge. How can we so effectively 
influence others to adopt this course, as by pre- 
senting in our own conduct the true example ? 
The Word of God only: be that our motto, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



143 



" known and read of all men." And let our action 
be faithfully suited to the sentiment : " The Word 
of God only, with no human addition ; the Divine 
Revelation, clear, limpid, pure, just as it came from 
the heart of infinite Wisdom, Goodness and Truth. 
Turning away from man and all his utterances, let 
us apply our ear attentively, exclusively to the 
Divine Testimony. "I will hear what God the 
Lord will speak." And w r hile we show definitively 
to all observers that we count as an outrage, and 
even as impiety, the attempt to put anything by 
the side of his Word, let us not fail to show also, 
and with equal definitiveness, that we are sincerely 
desirous to be enlightened and governed by that 
Word. Let us ever with true meekness and docil- 
ity occupy " the benches of that divine School," 
where " nothing appears, nothing elevates itself in 
the chair of instruction, but the infallible Word of 
God." And when converts are multiplied around 
us, let us faithfully insist that they take their places 
in the same school as disciples of the Great Teacher. 
Let us not introduce them into the Church, and 
fasten upon them a sectarian name, and pledge 
them to the defence of a sectarian creed and the 
support of a sectarian policy, and afterwards direct 
them to the Bible as the Book from which they 
are to learn their Master's will. The Bible First, 
the Bible Always: be that our lesson, verbally 
taught, practically exemplified. 



144 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



In this way we may contribute to Christian har- 
mony. We shall thus take an important step tow- 
ards the qualification of ourselves as a constituent 
portion of the great united whole. We shall be- 
come practically and really, what very many are 
now only theoretically and apparently, the disciples 
of Him who said, " Learn of me." We shall occupy 
ground upon which, if all come, all will agree, and 
upon which, if there be in all the proper moral 
feelings, there will assuredly be the union for which 
the Saviour prayed. 

An incidental effect of such study of the Divine 
Word, and further contributive to the general 
result, is the spirit that will be nurtured in our 
own bosoms, — a spirit as far removed from the 
schismatical as is the spirit of heaven. A man who 
has adopted'his theological principles, and arranged 
his system of religious ethics, and then comes to 
the Bible merely to corroborate and sanctify his 
preconceptions, pursues a course that will be likely 
to strengthen all his tendencies to separation and 
exclusiveness. He will be more of the contro- 
vertist than the peace-maker ; more of the sectarian 
than the Christian. But the man who reverences 
the Word of God as supreme in excellence and 
authority ; who comes to it, emptied of all human 
notions, and communes with it, sincerely desirous 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 145 

to be made wiser and better ; who opens his soul 
fully to all the influences and impregnations of the 
truth, " as the truth is in Jesus," — will be sure, not 
only to learn how he may be saved, and what he 
must believe, and the duties he must practise, but 
also to imbibe a spirit that will render him more 
lovely in the eyes of both earth and heaven, and a 
more fit subject for that union which is yet to be 
realized, and for which high spiritual qualifications 
are indispensable. He lays his thirsting soul down 
to that " stream which makes glad the city of 
God," — the one stream of truth with which min- 
gle no inflaming ingredients. He drinks in the 
spirit of the Bible, and it becomes incorporated 
with his moral being, and his spiritual improvement 
is obvious to all around him. It is seen that his 
feelings and disposition are formed after the New 
Testament model, and opponents of his views take 
knowledge of him that he has "been with Jesus,"' 
and learned of Him who is " meek and lowly in 
heart." Among the graces of his character are 
courtesy, gentleness, forbearance, condescension, 
kindness, simplicity, godly sincerity. He is " ten- 
der-hearted," " kindly-affectioned," and " follows 
after the things which make for peace, and things 
whereby one may edify another." The sermon on 
the mount he has heard with profit, for he is a 
living illustration of its practical excellence. The 
13 



146 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



lesson of Jesus in the washing of his disciples' feet 
has not been lost upon him, for its spirit is wrought 
into his soul, and developed in his life. His visits 
to the Garden and the Cross have not been in vain ; 
for he has there learned to endure suffering with- 
out a murmur, to be patient under goading provo- 
cations, to pray for his harshest tormentors, and to 
surrender all to the will of his Heavenly Father. 
How completely is his moral nature baptized into 
the spirit of the Bible; how thoroughly is he 
impregnated with its subduing, mellowing influ- 
ence ; how suitable a candidate is he for member- 
ship in that One Church which is a thing of the 
future ! 

4. WE MAT CHEERFULLY SURRENDER EVERYTHING 
ADVERSE TO UNION WHICH WE ARE NOT BOUND 
BY OUR ALLEGIANCE TO CHRIST TO RETAIN. 

Under this head may be reckoned every senti- 
ment or practice that cannot be shown to be scrip- 
tural ; every feature in our general polity which 
we may know to be of human origin ; everything 
that interferes with the healing process, and is not 
required of us by the Master. Surely, for the sake 
of such a good as the cordial union of the follow- 
ers of Christ, we can afford to surrender whatever 
lies outside of the realm of prescribed duty. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



147 



" Yes," you say, and all say, " anything but Truth 
and Conscience." Let us, then, be candid and 
thorough in our investigations, and detect and 
repudiate whatsoever in us may unnecessarily hin- 
der the reunion of a fractured, divided Church. 

We do not, for we cannot, pretend to infallibil- 
ity. Such an assumption we leave to the blinded 
papist, and to his foster son of the Oxford family, 
who welcomes the relation, and obsequiously 

"dextras . . . 

Implicuit, sequiturque patrein non passibus sequis." 

Dr. Oswald has said that "the possibility of 
error attends every mathematical demonstration." 
This possibility may be predicated of everything 
human ; and Christians who are supposed to know 
their own weakness, their facility of aberration, 
and their exposure to misleading influences, are 
expected to be the last to claim exemption from 
this universal liability. We can afford to be the 
latest of the last to assume, either directly or by 
implication, that the whole truth, exclusive of all 
error, is assuredly with us. However willing we 
may be to submit our system to the most rigorous 
scrutiny, we lose nothing by the admission that 
there may be mistakes which we have over- 
looked. And however kindly we may think that 



148 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



we feel towards other denominations, and however 
charitably we may suppose that we carry ourselves 
towards them, it is quite possible that in these 
respects there may be some things not conform- 
able to the divine standard. 

Those who are under the influence of the secta- 
rian spirit are unwilling to examine their religious 
scheme. They are committed to its support, and 
their humility is not* equal to the trial that would 
ensue upon the discovery of an error, which, 
knowing it to be such, they could not honestly 
retain. But what is the benefit of a retention of 
error? Truth only can make us holier, happier, 
more useful. It is for our interest to discover and 
renounce whatever is unscriptural, and we should 
be grateful to any being, Divine or human, who 
might assist us in the purifying process. If ours 
be certainly "the faith once delivered to the 
saints," then may we c - earnestly contend " for it 
against all encroachments ; but, as there is a possi- 
bility that it may, at some points, be either more 
or less erroneous, it is surely befitting that our zeal 
should be tempered with carefulness and modesty. 
The main stream may have issued absolutely pure 
from the Fountain of Truth ; but rivulets from 
other fountains are constantly seeking to become 
its tributaries, and that man knows little of the 
history of doctrinal theology and of Christian 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



149 



morals, and little of the insinuating power of 
error, who apprehends no danger of the infiltra- 
tion of foreign mixtures. God has, in his goodness 
to man, kept the Bible pure. Happy, indeed, if 
we can preserve in their purity the living waters 
as they flow in the channels that man has exca- 
vated. Hardly here can we be too vigilant, too 
faithful. 

If challenged to designate any particular in our 
system which is unseriptural and at the same time 
an obstacle to the desirable irnion of Christians, I 
reply that such a service would be alien to my 
design. I simply commend to others what I pro- 
pose to myself — self-censorship. If we rigorously 
examine ourselves, and the whole ground we 
occupy, and thoroughly repudiate whatsoever is 
truly objectionable, we take an important step 
towards the contemplated result. " For if we 
would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." 
I request no brother to surrender any part of the 
gospel, be it either doctrine or jDrecept; no, not 
even for the sake of peace ; and were I to propose 
a measure involving such a result, his allegiance to 
the Saviour should prompt him to rebuke me for 
the unworthy suggestion. In making Christian 
union the altar upon which he is invited to lay a 
sacrifice, I ask not that Christian truth may be the 
13* 



150 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



victim, or that lie may be the officiating priest. 
But I do entreat him, as I would charge myself 
before God, to examine with candor, and see if 
there be nothing about us that is extra-evangel- 
ical, and that we can spare in perfect consistency 
with all our relations to Zion's Kins; and Zion's 
cause. Whatever denominational j)ride may sug- 
gest to the contrary, let us heed rather the im- 
pulses of Christian love, and scrupulously put far 
away every such element of evil. TTe constitute, 
in this country, one of the largest portions of 
Christ's visible Body. Let us renounce every- 
thing that disqualifies us for a happy reunion of 
the dismembered parts, and be not the last, but 
the first, to take our place in the line of Truth 
and Holiness, awaiting with prayerful hope the 
hour when the world shall again have a manifes- 
tation of real Christian Brotherhood. 

5. WE MAT CAREFULLY REFRAIN FROM EVERY- 
THING THAT MAY UNNECESSARILY TEND TO 
WIDEN THE BREACH AMONG CHRISTIANS, OR 
TEND TO PERPETUATE ITS CONTINUANCE. 

One objectionable feature in all the plans for 
Christian union which I have examined, is the 
apparent confidence with which certain positions 
are assumed as true which are really points in 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD, 



151 



debate. There is too much of what logicians call 
petitio principii — the taking for granted of a 
fundamental proposition which remains to be 
proved. Were I to propose a plan, I might per- 
petrate the same mistake, and demand of others 
that they concur with me touching some points in 
relation to which they have serious, conscientious 
difficulties. Hence the purpose with which I com- 
menced, to abstain from the exhibition of a for- 
mal plan, and confine myself mainly to sugges- 
tions that presuppose ourselves as well as others 
to be unprepared for the consideration of any 
such plan. There cannot be union until there 
shall be agreement, assimilation, and mutual at- 
traction. We must all be deeply imbued with 
the spirit of Christ, and conformed in principle 
and practice to the Bible standard of Christian 
character; then may we unite and cohere with 
a fair prospect that our union will be permanent. 
But never can the desired result be approached 
by any attempt that involves this offensive beg- 
ging of the question, a course of conduct that 
generally aggravates the original difficulty. 1 We 

1 The treatise of the late Dr. Harris, of England, entitled 
"Christian Union: or the Divided Church made One/' a work 
of great ability, and commendable spirit, is unhappily disfig- 
ured by several of these unwarrantable assumptions. Vide 
Boston eel., pp. 85, 86, 110, 122, etc. 



152 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



feel ourselves repelled by a proposition to unite 
upon terms that require us to renounce what we 
consider, and are known to consider, as gospel 
truth or gospel duty. We say, if we speak at all, 
that "We desire union as much as any class of 
Christians upon earth, and are willing to make 
any sacrifice for the object which we think our 
Master will approve; but you must not ask us 
to do violence to our convictions, deliberately 
acquired and honestly maintained." Occupying 
this dignified and defensible position, we should 
remember that others may be as conscientious 
and as sensitive as ourselves, and that any propo- 
sition for union coming from us that involves a 
sacrifice of principles which they regard as im- 
portant, is likely to receive the answer which we 
have so firmly and properly given. He who 
would promote good feeling, and draw more 
closely the bonds of fraternal confidence, and 
open most widely the avenues to conviction, must 
cautiously abstain from all trespass upon the do- 
main of Christian consciences. " Come over to 
us, and we will be one,"' may seem to be a very 
simple and easy mode of adjusting the whole 
matter ; but wherever it is attempted, the proba- 
bility of success is by the very act diminished. 
" Come, brethren in the Lord, let us examine the 
whole subject of our agreements and our differ- 



CHRISTIAN" BROTHERHOOD, 



153 



ences, and let ns pray together for light and 
grace," would be a far more courteous proposition, 
and a more likely mode of reuniting and healing 
the broken ligaments. 

Other denominations have sometimes spoken of 
us with severity as uncharitable, bigoted, exclu- 
sive. May not some of this have been provoked 
by the manner in which we have spoken of them? 
The question is not gratuitous, and should lead to 
inquiry. We are accustomed, I believe, to attrib- 
ute their bitter utterances to other causes more 
nearly connected with our distinctive belief and 
practice ; but let us candidly inquire if some of 
the responsibility may not belong to ourselves, 
and if at this point there may not be gain both to 
ourselves and to the cause of God by greater care- 
fulness. Where there is error, show it; where 
there is wrong reprove it; "considering thyself 
lest thou also be tempted." But let us abstain 
from the use of harsh judgments and reproachful 
epithets, which only irritate and provoke retalia- 
tion. It would seem as if some men — Christians 
they are called — had "no greater joy" than to 
see how their opponents will smart and writhe 
under their stinging sarcasms. Surely, their only 
motive for the discharge of such barbed missiles 
must be self-gratification ; for they are not capable 
of supposing that any real good to others, or any 



154 CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



glory to God, can result from this conduct. Are 
the wounded convinced of error, or more inclined 
to embrace the views of such assailants ? Is any 
truth developed or recommended by this process ? 
Is the Saviour pleased with such acts, or such a 
spirit ? And who are these wounded ones ? Are 
they not the disciples of Jesus ? And is it not 
possible that through them the envenomed points 
have reached and pierced the Master of us all ? 

If we desire to convert to .our views others 
whom we regard as in error, but little knowledge 
of human nature is requisite to show us that our 
truly politic course is to avoid everything like 
sneer, ridicule, or denunciation. "A brother of- 
fended is harder to be won than a strong city." 
Their views may be unscriptural and of pernicious 
tendency; but what is the most effectual mode 
of soliciting attention to these facts, and produc- 
ing in their minds the conviction that shall lead 
to the desired changes ? Every man can instantly 
decide upon the expedient course, which here is 
the right course, by one honest inquiry of his 
own heart. By omitting all that can give unnec- 
essary pain, and adopting the language, tone, and 
manner of true Christian kindness, we conciliate, 
attract, and endear. I may be told that others 
are often the aggressors, and that we are only 
showing a becoming resentment, paying, them in 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



155 



their own coin. Indeed! and have we forgotten 
what the Saviour says of retaliation, of non-resist- 
ance, of forgiveness, of "forbearing one another 
in love," of the charity that "is not easily pro- 
voked" but "endureth all things?" "Becoming 
resentment!" What words are these from lips 
that monthly or bi-monthly press the cup of com- 
munion, and that were taught in early life to lisp 
the Lord's prayer! Have we yet to learn the 
lesson, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome 
evil with good?" The reflex influence of kind 
words and acts upon our own hearts is softening 
and soothing; upon the hearts of others, subdu- 
ing and melting; and such hearts soon clasp and 
throb in unison. Call a brother an opponent, and 
treat him as such, and, whatever he was, unless 
he has a large measure of the spirit of Christ, 
he becomes an opponent, and places himself in 
an attitude of resistance, if not of defiance. But, 
allow him the name by which he chooses to be 
called ; concede to him the right of private judg- 
ment ; attribute to him no motives which he disa- 
vows ; assume no airs of superiority, but approach 
him as an equal ; respect the delicacy of his con- 
science, and reason with him in the spirit of fra- 
ternal gentleness and affection, — and he is surely 
one of that small class of the intractable and irre- 
claimable, if he does not reciprocate your spirit, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



and welcome -with gratitude the very impressions 
which you would fain leave upon his mind. 

Much of that feeling among Christians which 
passes by the sacred name of Charity, is little 
else than masked disaffection, and, stripped of 
its disguise, would be denominated hypocrisy. 
What Leighton says of Humility, that he never 
heard it discoursed upon in an humble manner, 
is quite as true of this much-abused, dishonored 
Charity, which is often the most misrepresented 
in spirit by those who commend it most in word ; 
it is explained and recommended in a most un- 
charitable way. Tou, my brother, I venture to 
say. have read many a book, and heard many a 
sermon, and listened to many a conversation upon 
Charity that exposed a painful deficiency of the 
lovely grace. The uncharitable — that is. all such 
as do not agree with the writer or the speaker — 
are considered as fair game, and every now and 
then there is a cut or a thrust which somebody 
must feel to the heart's centre. Alas! how im- 
perfect we are! How often we are the victims 
of self-deception ! Here is a point of special dan- 
ger where we need to set a double guard. Malig- 
nity, hidden behind a Christian grace, shoots en- 
venomed arrows, and injury is done which brings 
that grace into disrepute. Unless our Charity 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



157 



is genuine, let us not talk of it. If it be genuine, 
it needs no talk. It is eminently a practical grace, 
and shows itself sufficiently in tone, temper,' and 
action. They who have the most of it are gen- 
erally the least aware of it themselves, and there- 
fore never boast of it. 

We all profess to deplore the schisms among 
Christians, and to desire that they may be healed; 
and yet, how often do we hear regrets and wishes 
upon this subject accompanied by expressions of 
the most schismatical tendency. It is too com- 
mon to endeavor to fix on others the guilt of 
schism, and to represent ourselves as the innocent 
victims of the wrong. I well recollect an instance 
in which a considerable number of Christians of 
different denominations agreed to meet once a 
month on the broad basis of their " maximum of 
agreement," and pray and labor jointly for the 
advancement of religion in the place of their resi- 
dence. They desired, they said, to draw more 
closely the bonds of Christian fellowship, and 
show to the world that, in the main, they were 
agreed and united. At the first meeting remarks 
were made by the presiding clergyman with re- 
spect to the origin of divisions among Christians, 
and the causes which prevent an entire and cordial 
union, that deeply wounded many present, and 
14 



158 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



proved fatal to the whole project. What is the 
real value of an union, where each constituent 
denomination says, "We are disposed to enter 
into the proposed combination, but we do it with 
the distinct understanding that Ave are right and 
you are wrong ? 79 

You, my brother, have doubtless admired those 
beautiful and affecting words which Milton repre- 
sents Adam as addressing to Eve, after they had 
wearied themselves and wounded each other with 
mutual complaints and recriminations : 

" But, rise ; let us no more contend, nor blame 
Each other, blamed enough elsewhere; hut strive, 
In offices of love, how we may lighten t 
Each other's burden in our share of woe/ 

And you have admired still more the address of 
Abraham to his kinsman, Lot, — an address which 
has acquired for him the designation of "The first 
/ gentleman,*' as for other reasons he is called " The 
Father of the Faithful:" — "Let there be no strife, 
I pray thee, between me and thee, and between 
my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we are breth- 
ren." Investigation might have led to a dis- 
covery of the original offender, and the true guilt 
of each party might have been ascertained. But 
cui bono? Where would have been the advan- 
tage of such a result? Justice might have been 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD, 



159 



administered, but alienation and animosity would 
have been deepened "and perpetuated. " Where 
lies tlie responsibility?" is, I admit, a question 
of some importance; but is it not far better, if 
we sincerely desire the restoration of harmony, 
for every party to confine the inquiry to itself, 
and thus avoid everything like crimination and 
reproach ? 

Controversy may sometimes be unavoidable, 
and, within certain limits, and governed by cer- 
tain rules, it may be useful. It has been said to 
be "the wind by which truth is winnowed," and 
also that, by the collision of mind, with mind in 
the process, " the sparks of truth are elicited." 
But the history of sixteen centuries will show 
conclusively that whatever may be its advantages 
in other departments, its utility in the Christian 
Church is extremely limited. Strange as it may 
seem, yet honesty requires the admission, that re- 
ligious controversies have often been distinguished 
by peculiar acrimony and bitterness. Who does 
not know that even now they inflict wounds that 
fester long and deeply, and heal slowly and im- 
perfectly? Who has not witnessed the exasper- 
ation of feeling produced by a single tract or 
pamphlet, not by the clearness or cogency of its 
arguments, but by the rasping character of its 



160 



CHRISTIAN BSOTHERHOOD. 



hints and surmises, implications and caricatures? 
Mischief is sometimes done by a newspaper para- 
graph of twenty lines, that cannot in a whole 
generation be repaired. 

It is a delightful fact that controversy among 
the evangelical denominations has of late years as- 
sumed a milder form, and therefore produces less 
of inflammation. Its spirit has become subdued, 
and far more candid, as if brethren were dealing 
not with carnivorous antagonists, but with brethren, 
the children of one Father. Certainly, on our own 
side, we have occasion to be grateful that the dis- 
cussion of one class of disputed subjects has fallen 
into the hands of such men as Baldwin, Chapin, 
Judson, Ripley, Jewett, Hague and Curtis. Of 
their argumentation I say nothing ; of the temper 
exhibited in their productions I might speak in 
terms of the highest commendation. And upon 
all questions, whether of Christian doctrine or of 
ecclesiastical polity, the spirit of controversy has 
undergone a favorable modification. Misrepresen- 
tation and wholesale abuse are not so common as 
formerly, and Christians can oppose one another's 
principles and practices with less of personality, and 
less of unjust, gratuitous insinuation. " Her Lady- 
ship of Babylon " is not so frequently named as the 
foster-mother of all denominations but one, and 
reproachful epithets are current at less value than 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



161 



in the days of our fathers. God grant that these 
improvements may proceed, and that the time may 
speedily come when everything unnecessarily vexa- 
tious and irritating shall be discarded, and when 
all comparisons of opinions and all discussions of 
differences shall be conducted in the gentle and 
generous spirit of the gospel. How comprehensive 
and yet how definite that phrase from an Apostle's 
pen, specifically translated, " Speaking the truth in 
love-' — ahnSevovres iv ay6~r h — truthing in love, — 
being, thinking, feeling, speaking, acting affection- 
ately true, at all times, in all places, towards all 
persons ! 

Is it not possible that we may sometimes, with 
wrong intentions, or in a wrong spirit, remind 
others how unkindly their ancestors treated our 
fathers ? History certainly tells some exciting 
tales upon this subject ; but is it profitable to our- 
selves, or to the cause of God, to remember them, 
and to use them either for attack or defence in de- 
nominational controversy ? Those who perpetrated 
the foul wrongs, like the victims of their severity, 
have all gone to a world where wrong is equitably 
rectified, and right satisfactorily vindicated. The 
successors of those persecutors are no more the 
inheritors of their guilt, than we are partakers 
of the sufferings of our abused predecessors. Let 
14* 



162 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



us rejoice that a change has come over the once 
oppressive and persecuting sects; and, so long as 
they exhibit not the spirit, and justify not the mis- 
deeds, of their fathers, let us not taunt them with 
their ecclesiastical lineage, or hold them responsible 
for wrongs in which they did not participate, and 
in the condemnation of which they may be as sin- 
cere as ourselves. 

TTe are every year receiving into our Churches 
ministers and private members who have seen occa- 
sion, as the result of new views, to change their 
ecclesiastical relations by embracing our j^rinciples 
and adopting our distinctive practice. It is very 
natural for us to be pleased when such changes 
occur, and to refer to them as corroborative proof 
of the correctness of our system. Surely, it is said, 
if the evidence did not preponderate very much in 
our favor, such persons would not have yielded 
to it all their prejudices of education, or sacrificed 
so freely their social interest, or exposed themselves 
to so much obloquy from their former associates. 
But, in proclaiming the facts, is it necessary to 
speak as if signal victories had been gained ? 
From the prominence given to such cases, the in- 
ference is drawn that more importance is attached 
to acqiusitibns of this kind than to conversions 
from the world. The ordinary effect of such 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



163 



boasting is irritation of feeling and provocation 
to a more embittered resistance, if not to reprisals. 
Just in proportion as we magnify the value of such, 
converts, will others be likely to detract from their 
worth, and hold them up to the world as losses 
of minor consequence. In disputes about loss 
and gain, the warfare is likely to become personal, 
damaging the reputation and diminishing the future 
influence of the seceders ; or, if character escape 
unscathed, they are liable, under such a goading 
process, to be driven to an extreme, and to become 
the most fierce and intolerant of all sectarians. 
"He that departeth from evil maketh himself a 
prey." But, whatever the effect upon the individ- 
uals concerned, the almost certain result is an 
aggravation of party spirit. The breach that sep- 
arates Christians, like the fosse in military forti- 
fications, is made broader and deeper and more 
impassable than ever; and the very bridge over 
which these brethren passed in their transition is 
hewn away, and the probability of further conver- 
sions is greatly diminished. How much more 
Christian-like, and how much more pacific in its 
tendencies, would be our conduct, if in such cases 
we should carefully abstain from everything like 
exultation or triumph ! How much more certain 
might we be of the approving smile of our Lord ; 
how much more conservative and healing would 



164 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



be our influence on his riven, bleeding Body ! By 
pursuing this prudent and conciliatory course, I 
see not that we yield anything of principle, or that 
we compromise any interest of our adorable Mas- 
ter. On the contrary, we should, I cannot doubt, 
subserve the best interests of that kingdom which 
is not of this world, and which needs not the spirit 
of this world for its advancement. I plead for 
nothing cowardly or craven-hearted. Let us not 
flinch from the manly defence and the wide-spread 
propagation of the whole truth as we derive it 
from the "Word of God. Let us pour abroad the 
whole current of our moral power in order to bring 
all men to " the knowledge of the truth," and to 
"the obedience of Christ;" and then, if other 
Christians fall in with us, singly or in groups, we 
may certainly be both pleased and grateful. But 
let us, as followers of Him who studied more to 
soothe than to irritate, more to persuade and allure 
than to provoke and repel, be cautious as to the 
language we employ, the measures we adopt, and 
the spirit we exhibit. Let the victories, great or 
small, which the truth achieves, all go to grace, not 
our triumph, but the Saviour's. 

Learned men of other denominations have made 
extraordinary concessions touching our interpreta- 
tion of certain Greek terms in the New Testament, 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



165 



as also with respect to the conformity of our pe- 
culiar practice to the meaning of those terms, and 
to apostolic and ancient usage. These concessions 
are certainly of some value in argument ; but it 
may fairly be questioned if we have not sometimes 
employed them disingenuously, and in a way more 
fitted to offend than to convince. It is hardly 
honorable to select detached sentences, or frag- 
ments of sentences, and so remove them from their 
connections as to make them express more, or less, 
or something else, than the author intended to con- 
vey. Some writers have complained of our in- 
justice in this particular; and it is not improbable 
that hereafter, in their attempts to avoid the pos- 
sibility of misrepresentation, authors may be less 
candid. 

We are accustomed to speak freely, perhaps 
sometimes complacently, of our great and rapidly 
increasing numbers ; and we not unfrequently do 
it in such relations and in such a manner as to indi- 
cate that hundreds of thousands are a very strong 
argument. Once we were few and feeble, and 
claimed to be regarded as the "little flock" to 
whom was promised the kingdom. Now, we are 
so large a people, and annually increasing by such 
numerous additions, that surely the Lord must be 
on our side, and we must be his special favorites. 



166 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



We have indeed an immense number of commu- 
nicants, and it would be occasion for joy could we 
see that they are distinguished for personal godli- 
ness, for a high order of religious culture, for 
united vigorous efforts to evangelize the world. 
Considering well the real facts, have we not occa- 
sion for humility and solicitude ? It is a very 
serious question if our numerical strength is not 
likely to prove our moral weakness, and, conse- 
quently, if our anticipations of a glorious future 
should not be moderate. Why, then, should we, 
by such frequent reference to growing numbers, 
minister nutriment to denominational pride, and 
institute comparisons adapted, if not intended, to 
mortify other sects, by reminding them of their 
numerical inferiority? Bad passions are stimulated 
on both sides, and obstacles to a greater Christian 
fraternity are multiplied. 

Pointed arguments to incite our Churches to 
benevolent activity are often derived from secta- 
rian sources. "Other denominations are active, 
and, unless we move with greater speed and en- 
ergy, will take the ground." "Other denomina- 
tions are supjDlying the destitute with ministers, 
and schools, and books, and, unless we bestir our- 
selves, we shall be left far in the rear." Such 
motives we hear urged, and often with greater 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 167 

earnestness than the higher considerations, — the 
command of Christ, the value of souls, the obli- 
gations of humanity. These appeals may not 
harm other denominations, except, perhaps, by 
goading them on to additional efforts for the 
lengthening of their own sectarian cords, and the 
strengthening of their sectarian stakes. But their 
influence upon our own people is not of the most 
healthful kind. They learn to regard others as 
our competitors for territory, and to consider as 
lost every acquisition which others may make, or 
may prevent us from making. They learn to look 
upon the religious enterprises of the different sects 
as struggles for precedence, — as the means of 
extending and strengthening party influence ; and 
their contributions are liable to be made, not so 
much for the advancement of Christ's kingdom, 
or the salvation of souls, as for the pushing for- 
ward of denominational aggressions, and the pre- 
occupancy of coveted territory. The moral bear- 
ing of such appeals to the spirit of sect can easily 
be apprehended. The effect must ever be such 
as the lovers of true benevolence and Christian 
harmony will .deplore. How much better, in all 
respects, would it be to say : " Come, brethren in 
the Lord, redeemed by precious blood, let us con- 
sider our duty to Christ and to perishing men, 
and enter vigorously upon its faithful performance. 



168 CHRISTIAN -BROTHERHOOD. 

i 

Our brethren of other denominations are in the 
field, and laboring with commendable zeal and 
encouraging; success. God honors their efforts 
with his Spirit's blessing, and they are doing an 
immense amount of good. Let us gird ourselves 
for the service, and go forth where others have 
not gone, and endeavor to do the work assigned 
us by our Master. Time is short, and our period 
of labor is hastening to its conclusion. Sinners 
all over the world are dying and passing away 
to the retributions of eternity. Let us not linger. 
Constrained by love to Christ and love to souls, 
let us act with promptness and energy, and en- 
deavor, before we go to our final account, to do 
something for the salvation of men and the glory 
of our Redeemer." 1 

" The Jews have no dealings with the Samari- 
tans." This brief statement reveals much respect- 
ing not only the spirit that prevailed in those 
parties, but also the means by which that spirit 
was kept alive and active. In their secular, as 

i Andrew Fuller travelled much in England and Scotland on 
behalf of the Serampore Mission. It is said that he took the 
largest collections when he preached on the love of Christ, and 
made no reference to any lower class of motives. He "bore 
to the treasury many a liberal gift from persons of various 
denominations. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



169 



well as their spiritual affairs, they avoided all 
intercourse. They were shy of each other's soci- 
ety, and studiously refrained from everything that 
might soften the asperity of then hatred, and lead 
to some reciprocity of kind offices. Thus was 
the breach between them widened year by year, 
and Gerizim and Jerusalem became more and 
more the rallying points of hated and hating 
partisans. And have you not, my brother, wit- 
nessed a propensity among religious sects to con- 
fine their social intercourse and their secular pat- 
ronage within sectarian limits ? Have you not 
seen men in every line of business expecting and 
receiving the preference, solely on denominational 
grounds? And have you not seen the effect of 
all this upon Christian character, contracting the 
heart, narrowing the circle in which the sympa- 
thies play, and giving to the whole moral being 
an a spect of illiberality and exclusiveness alto- 
gether unlovely? I submit the question, if to 
counteract these anti-social tendencies of the spirit 
of sect, we ought not to take special pains to 
bring Christians of different denominations more 
together, and to secure more of that familiar ac- 
quaintance which we all believe would produce 
favorable results? And should we not render 
good service to the Christian cause by regarding 
less than we do, in the distribution of our social 
15 



170 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



attentions and our secular patronage, the influ- 
ence of sectarian considerations ? The law of 
brotherly love may justify many preferences; but 
the danger lies in the limitation of our brotherly 
love within too small a circle. It is bad enough 
that the lines of division are so distinct in our 
ecclesiastical organizations. Why should these 
lines run through social and commercial life, and 
keep Christians of different names froni coming 
in contact at any point ? Is there nowhere upon 
earth an unexceptionable place where those who 
may warrantably hope to meet in heaven, may 
come together, and look one another in the face, 
and read in one another's character the linea- 
ments of a holy relationship? 

6. WE MAT COOPERATE WITH ALL CHRISTIANS IN 
EVERYTHING NOT INTERDICTED BY THE LAWS 
OF CHRIST. 

The laws by which our conduct, as citizens of 
Zion, is to be governed, we ascertain, not from our 
covenant engagements to any particular Church, 
not from any usages of our denomination, not 
from any Declaration or Confession drawn up by 
men, however wise or holy, — but from the Word 
of God, candidly and prayerfully examined by 
ourselves. " There is one Lawgiver," the Lord 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



171 



Jesus Christ, and he allows no one to stand be- 
tween him and his subjects as the authoritative 
interpreter of his laws. The interpretations of 
neither the minister nor the Church are binding 
upon the membership. Christ, as Legislator and 
Judge, holds us individually and directly responsi- 
ble, both for a right understanding of his laws, 
and for complete obedience to their requirements. 
Our allegiance to him is paramount to all other; 
and we have no right to enter into any associa- 
tion, or become subject to any authority, that 
will interfere with entire submission to his will 
as expressed in his inspired Word. ]STo Church 
or combination of Churches, no minister or con- 
vention of ministers, not even "The Denomina- 
tion," — that great, indefinite abstraction, — has any 
prerogative in the department of conscience, either 
to make new laws for the regulation of our Chris- 
tian conduct, or to suspend any law which Christ 
has given us. The statement that fell from his 
own lips is worthy of repetition : " One is your 
Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." By 
becoming acquainted with his will, we shall know 
how far we may proceed in any direction, and be 
able to determine, on all occasions, the prescribed 
boundaries within which our action must be faith- 
fully confined. If we are desirous to know what, 
in any given case, we should do, Jesus says ex- 



172 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



pressly to every one of us 5 as he did to the law- 
yer, "What is written in the Law? How readest 
thou ? " He authorizes us to expect no new reve- 
lation, but ever remands us to the one we have. 
If we would ascertain the limits of our responsi- 
bility, and discover the line beyond which we 
must not go, even though prompted by the best 
of motives and treading in the steps of the best 
of men, we hear our Master saying, " Search the 
Scriptures, — they contain the statutes of my 
kingdom." If we would discover the spirit by 
which we should be governed in our intercourse 
with the Church and the world, this also is mat- 
ter of Law, and every necessary direction will 
be found in the New Testament. 

It is not for me to specify how far any one, 
beside myself, may go in his intercourse and coop- 
eration with Christians of other sects; for this 
would be an invasion of the sacred domain of 
his conscience, an unwarrantable interposition of 
my private opinion between him and his spiritual 
Sovereign. I can determine for myself the ex- 
tent and the limitations of my own duty, and no 
man or body of men, secular or religious, shall 
dictate to me my duty in this or any other de- 
partment of Christian action. I shall make up 
my own estimate of the courtesies which I owe 
to the disciples of Jesus of every name, and shall 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



173 



pursue that course of conduct which accords with 
the laws of Christ as I understand them. This 
right I have surrendered to no denomination, no 
voluntary association, no Church. It is inherent 
and inalienable by virtue of my sonship in Christ ; 
and it is the indefeasible right of every Christian 
disciple. 

And yet I suppose I may, without assumption or 
immodesty, exhort my fellow-disciples to inquire 
carefully, and see if we cannot, consistently with 
our allegiance to the Son of God, and in ways that 
will be pleasing to him, exhibit towards other 
denominations more of the truly fraternal spirit 
than we have sometimes manifested, and make 
some additional advances towards that union which 
all the truly spiritual admit to be desirable. I ask 
them not, as I would not be myself asked, to 
transcend any scriptural limitations ; but I surely 
may entreat them to examine anew, and decide for 
themselves if the friends of Christ cannot be more 
familiar with one another, more affectionate in their 
intercourse, more disposed to join their forces in 
efforts for the advancement of the common cause. 
It might not be wholly pertinent for me to inquire 
how Christ and his Apostles would act in this mat- 
ter, were they to reappear on the earth and be 
placed in our circumstances, for that is a point con- 
cerning which no one could give a better answer 



17-k 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



than his own opinion ; and yet it is well often to 
propose the question, and to bring our minds, with 
such light as we have, to the formation of an 
opinion that may have some bearing upon our 
conduct. It is certainly better than to ask the 
advice of any sectarian in Christendom. But the 
true course, unquestionably, is to consult the teach- 
ings and the life of Christ, and the instructions and 
examples of his inspired Apostles, and thus, in the 
fear of God, and in full view of our responsibility 
to the Head of the Church, discover for ourselves 
individually the path of duty, and ever walk in 
it with all humility and firmness. If we enter upon 
this investigation divested of the spirit of sect, and 
resolved, as duty may seem to be indicated, to act, 
fearless of all denunciation, domestic or foreign, 
we may find that our views upon this subject have 
been too narrow, and our policy too restricted. I 
say not that there has been bigotry, for that is a 
word which ought to be sparingly used ; but I 
cannot avoid the conviction that there has often 
been in ourselves, as well as in other sects, a spirit 
of exclusiveness quite uncalled for by the require* 
ments of the gospel, and exceedingly pernicious in 
its effects upon both our Christian character and 
our Christian usefulness. It may be said that 
we are often provoked to it by the treatment we 
receive from others. Be it so, as matter of fact ; 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



175 



and thus we learn the tendency of exclusiveness 
to alienate and drive farther asunder the different 
sections of God's people ; and thus, also, we see 
what must be the reaction upon others of our own 
exclusiveness. Why should we, even under provo- 
cation, pursue a course to which we find it painful 
to be provoked ? And should we not exhibit more 
of the spirit of Christ, and set a better example, 
by patiently enduring the provocation, and steadily 
persisting in a kind, conciliatory course of conduct ? 
Should we. not more effectually subdue the wrong 
spirit in others, and win them over the more cer- 
tainly to the path of fraternal concord, by forgiv- 
ing than by resenting the injury ? It seems to me 
that one of the primary lessons taught us in the 
New Testament, is the art of overcoming evil with 
good. There is a philosophy in the power of for- 
giveness and kindness worthy of our profoundest 
study. "Who has ever availed himself of that power 
to its full extent ? God accomplishes wonders by 
it, we ourselves being witnesses. Every reader of 
the Sacred volume must be aware of the special 
pains taken by Christ and his Apostles to show, 
both by precept and example, how much more can 
be effectuated by endurance than by resistance, by 
the " soft tongue " that " breaketh the bone " than 
by harsh retorts that madden the spirit. When 
shall we see the lessons upon meekness and gentle- 



176 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



ness which they have taught us fully exemplified ? 
When shall we see a fair experiment of the efficacy 
of Christian patience and forbearance to dissolve 
the frost of sectarian prejudice, and promote the 
restoration of Christian fellowship ? 

But, says one, — and he possibly speaks for 
many, — "I cannot conscientiously associate in 
any religious relation with such a sect, lest I 
should countenance certain things in their system 
which I firmly believe to be wrong." He suggests 
an underlying principle of great importance. We 
certainly must not countenance wrong by act any 
more than by word. But the question now per- 
tains to his application of the principle. It requires 
a nice discrimination to draw the line beyond which 
he may not proceed without countenancing what 
he ought to reprehend. And he may be rendered 
thoughtful by an inquiry with respect to his consis- 
tency. Is there nothing wrong in his own denomi- 
nation, or in the Church where he holds his mem- 
bership, which, if free association involves the 
offence, he is constantly countenancing ? Where, 
in such a case, is his conscience ? Does he not sus- 
tain religious relations to many, and openly co- 
operate with them in religious organizations, whom 
he knows to be derelict in Christian morals ? Alas 
for the deceptions which we practise upon our- 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



177 



selves ! How easy, where love is wanting, to find 
occasion for the stringent application of conscien- 
tious scruples ! As in the Church Ave too often 
place opinions above piety, so in society we place 
them above morals; and while we shrink from 
social intercourse with persons who hold some 
errors, though of the most correct conduct, we 
do not hesitate to act in fraternal concert with 
professors of our own creed of very doubtful char- 
acter. We do well not to countenance anything 
objectionable; but were we far more tolerant of 
opinions, and less tolerant of immoralities, we 
should exhibit much more of the spirit of the 
gospel. 

The grave question, and one that involves great 
interests, is this : May we not go much farther 
than we do, in association with all the friends of 
Christ, without violating any law of the Master, 
without damage to any principle or practice that 
is properly dear to us, and without any harm to 
our personal godliness ? If others show a disin- 
clination to any such increase of familiarity and 
cooperation, and repel our generous approaches, 
then the responsibility of separation is theirs, and 
we shall have the delightful reflection that we have 
made a sincere movement, from which we antici- 
pated healing results; and that by so doing we have 



178 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



endeavored to comply with the apostolic direction 
to w follow after the things which make for peace." 
But, allowing that our advances are repulsed, may 
we not hope that their repetition, in a Christian 
manner, and with much prayer for the Divine 
blessing, will be ultimately successful? Is not 
the issue sought of sufficient importance to justify 
persevering and long-continued effort? 

There is certainly some common ground upon 
which all the regenerated can meet, and show to 
one another and to the world that there are some 
ligaments that remain unbroken. Let us ascer- 
tain that common ground, and be ever ready 
to occupy it on equal terms with all who love 
the Saviour. The exhortation of the Apostle to 
the Church at Philippi is exactly appropriate : 
"Whereto we have already attained, let us walk 
by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." 1 
Here, it is assumed as a principle that agreement 
is the basis of union ; it is taken for granted that 
on some points all Christians must agree; it is pro- 
posed that, as far as they do agree, they should 
cordially unite and cooperate ; and it is more than 
intimated that by such a course they would most 

1 See an excellent Discourse from these words, entitled " The 
Principle of Christian Union," by Kev. William Hague, D. D. 
Boston: 1841. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



179 



effectually promote further coincidence of opinion. 
"If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God 
shall reveal even this unto you." 1 By walking 
harmoniously as far as we are agreed, we may 
rationally expect such additional illumination as 
will enable us to see other points alike, and thus 
to go on step by step until all differences shall 
disappear, and we find ourselves "one in Christ 
Jesus." The same Apostle expressed himself as 
painfully anxious for his brethren at Coiosse, at 
Laodicea, and as many as had not seen his face 
in the flesh, "that their hearts might be com- 
forted, being knit together in love, and unto all 
riches of the full assurance of understanding, to 
the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and 
of the Father and of Christ;" thus plainly inti- 
mating that union of hearts would conduce to 

1 " Our testimony against error is surely far more exemplary 
and striking when we walk with our fellow-Christians as far 
as we are agreed, and leave them at the point where they 
diverge from the right path, than when we refuse to accom- 
pany them at all. By the former mode of conduct, we prove 
that, if we depart from any of the opinions or observances 
of our brethren, it is only at the irresistible voice of duty to 
God, and not from want of love towards them ; while, by pur- 
suing the ordinary course of sectarianism, we rather appear 
to disapprove of characters than of sentiments, and to con- 
temn our fellow-Christians more than their errors."— -Mrs. 
Borneo Elton. 



180 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



the extension of their acquaintance with divine 
things, and, consequently, to a multiplication of 
the points of agreement. By the cultivation of 
kind feelings, and the exhibition of a liberal spirit, 
and the adoption of a generous course of action, 
we might hope, with aid from on high, to bring 
Christians more frequently and more closely to- 
gether, that so they might familiarly compare 
their respective systems with the Word of God, 
and elevate the whole into entire conformity to 
that one perfect standard. 

It deserves serious inquiry if great good might 
not result from the extension of our reading on 
a more liberal scale. An English writer, of much 
celebrity, says : " It would be a considerable help 
to the enlargedness of view and feeling, which 
this junction of the various religious bodies in 
our own country and in other parts calls for, were 
Christians to accustom themselves to read the 
works of writers of other religious denominations, 
as well as of their own ; both those which detail 
their operations for the spread of the gospel, and 
which announce their particular views of Chris- 
tianity in their own language. They would thus 
learn to give men credit for integrity and dili- 
gence in espousing opinions different from their 
own, whom they had previously imagined to be 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



181 



the slaves of prejudice, or victims of indolence. 
They would see that there were reasons for those 
opinions, which might easily determine the adop- 
tion of them by a certain class of minds, with- 
out any impeachment of their sincerity or piety, 
They would be gratified, too, by perceiving how 
much of truth and godliness had been established 
in the earth by the exertions of others not in 
conjunction with themselves, and hail as fellow- 
laborers those who. though they wrought in a 
different field, and after a different manner,' were 
sowing the same seed of truth and righteousness, 
and reaping the same results as themselves, under 
the evident token of the Divine approbation and 
blessing." Our obligation to patronize a denom- 
inational literature cannot be paramount to our 
obligation to subserve the higher and broader 
interests of the Christian cause. Were it suita- 
ble, I might name religious newspapers published 
by other denominations in which our brethren 
would find immensely more than they may have 
expected to approve and admire. We might 
occasionally meet with an offensive paragraph ; 
but, leaving it as an offset to some things equally 
objectionable on our own side, we should learn, 
and rejoice to learn, that other Christians are 
laboring for the promotion of truth and right- 
eousness in the world, that they have at heart the 
16 



182 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



good of souls and the glory of Christ, and that 
they have in large measure the Divine favor. 
Those publications advocate in the main the same 
great principles as our own; they exhibit essen- 
tially the same spirit ; in ninety-nine parts of a 
hundred they contain nothing exceptionable, noth- 
ing that even sectarian optics can detect as con- 
trary to the views which we entertain. It may 
be said that the courtesy which I recommend 
would not be reciprocated, and our effort would 
be practically useless. So we judge, a priori^ 
and not, I am sure, as the result of experiment. 
Let the attempt be made in the true spirit of 
conciliation, and, if it fail, the world will see 
that we have done, in this direction, the friendly 
thing. This want of confidence in the utility 
of kind, pacific endeavors, and especially in the 
promise of Him who has appointed them as the 
means of overcoming evil, is the bane that par- 
alyzes all effort for the restoration of harmony. 
And here is a point where Satan, the arch-divider 
of the Church, applies his perverse ingenuity. " It 
will do no good," he says, and we believe him. 
" Patronize exclusively your own publications," he 
adds, " and let others take care of theirs ; " and we 
take his advice. The Saviour looks down, and 
repeats his own words, "All ye are brethren." 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



183 



Several instances, like those of Douglas of 
Cavers, Jenkins of Assam, Wylie of Calcutta, 
Frye of Baltimore, Hill of Boston, and others, 
have occurred, where members of other commu- 
nions have generously contributed to the aid of 
our Foreign Missions, and we have hailed them as 
indications of a truly liberal spirit. We love such 
donors, not for the sake of their gratuities, but 
because we perceive in them elements of character 
that raise them superior to all party distinctions, 
and bring them into fellowship with all who love 
and serve the Son of God. Were we to know 
that prominent individuals among us are annually 
or occasionally contributing to aid the benevolent 
activities of other denominations, should we con- 
sider them as manifesting the same lovely spirit, 
and entitled, for the same reasons, to a similar com- 
mendation ? We should not, I suppose, deny their 
right to make such contributions; but would not 
many question the propriety of their conduct? 
It would be said of them, that they were diverting 
so much from the treasuries of their own societies, 
and that they were countenancing error and as- 
sisting in its propagation. But a careful analysis 
of all the feelings and principles involved in this 
double objection might reveal the presence of sec- 
tarian selfishness. When others make donations 
to our funds, they do it, not because they subscribe 



184 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



to all our views, but because thev regard us as 
Christians engaged in a good work. "What should 
hinder us from reciprocating the favor, and on the 
same broad basis ? In patronizing the missionary 
efforts of any of the evangelical denominations, 
how much of error or of wrong should we coun- 
tenance ? Should we not, on the contrary, en- 
courage a great amount of good ? And, taking 
into the account every consideration, may we not 
believe that c * with such sacrifices God'' would be 
M well pleased ? If it be not inconsistent with 
our allegiance to Christ, then surely ir is a service 
from which we need not be repelled by any appre- 
hension suggested by sectarian casuistry. Were 
these acts of kindness and confidence more fre- 
quently interchanged by different denominations, 
the effect would be salutary upon themselves, and 
the impression upon the world would be more of 
that kind which we all regard as desirable. It is 
not the money benefit, but the moral advantage, 
for which I plead, — the multiplying and the 
strengthening of the connectives which unite the 
people of God. Take an illustrative fact. A lady 
in England, soliciting contributions for a Mission- 
ary Society in the town where she resided, called 
upon a pious tradesman who was not, like herself, 
of the Established Church. On entering, she said, 
M I wait on you, sir, from the Church Missionary 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 185 

Society, because I have undertaken to call at every 
house in my division ; but, as I believe you are not 
a Churchman, I cannot presume to calculate upon 
your subscription ; and, though we are happy to 
receive support from any one, I ought not, perhaps, 
to expect it from you; and, therefore, having ful- 
iilled my engagement by calling, I will now cheer- 
fully take my leave.". — " Stop, madam," said he ; 
" I cannot suffer you to go away thus. It is true 
we have a Missionary Society of our own ; but, 
when I consider how long I have lived in this 
place, and how little, comparatively, has been done 
here in a religious point of view until the forma- 
tion of your society, I am truly thankful to God 
for his goodness, and you shall take the names 
of my wife and daughter, as humble but cheerful 
contributors." While he said this, u the springs 
which were in his head " — to use the quaint 
phraseology of John Bunyan — " did send the 
waters clown his cheeks." The lady, after receiv- 
ing the subscription of the TTesleyan, said, "Xow, 
sir, as you have been so kind and liberal towards 
our Society, you must allow me to give you a 
testimony of my good-will towards yours." Ac- 
cordingly, she insisted upon his accepting from 
her own purse a donation for the "Wesleyan Mis- 
sionary Society. "Truly," says Dr. Hague, after 
mentioning these facts, " when a charity so candid 
16* 



186 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD, 



and reciprocal as this shall pervade the Church, 
divisions will be comparatively nominal and harm- 
less; for, as the body without the spirit is dead, 
so sectarianism bereft of its selfish spirit is dead 
also." 1 To all this, from the pen and the heart of 
an esteemed brother, I cordially subscribe, with 
the wish that he may live to see sectarianism die 
of quick consumption, and to officiate at its inter- 
ment. He will pronounce no eulogy upon the 
departed, and have none to comfort with the hope 
of a resurrection. The Devil and his angels will 
be the only mourners, and in mid-heaven will be 
heard the anthem, long since hushed, " Glory to 
God in the highest ; and oisr earth peace, good- 
will towards MEN".' 5 

Among the means that would contribute to the 
desired result, I must include especially prayer, — 
enlightened, earnest, universal prayer. Through 
Christ we all have "access by one Spirit unto the 
Father." We all believe in prayer as an instru- 
ment of wondrous power, not only in its reflex 
influence upon the character of the petitioner, 
but also in its mysterious effectiveness in securing 
blessings that God has to bestow. According to 
the Word of God, much is made dependent upon 

1 " Principle of Christian Union. 39 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



187 



prayer, much is promised to prayer, much has 
been accomplished by prayer. United prayer 
is encouraged ; and the assurance of success is 
given to the smallest number who shall agree in 
the service. In the very atmosphere of a prayer- 
room there is something that rebukes all selfish- 
ness, and pride, and strife, and intolerance, and 
every evil of imperfect humanity, and that stimu- 
lates and nurtures "whatsoever things are lovely 
and of good report." Christians who pray much 
together have their views harmonized and their 
feelings assimilated, and they become attached to 
one another by bonds that are not easily broken. 
Were different denominations to come together 

" Around one common Mercy-Seat/" 

and pour out in union their supplications to their 
common Father, through their common Mediator, 
we might rationally expect that many of the ob- 
stacles to a fairer understanding: and to closer fel- 
lowship would be removed. Who, then, more 
appropriately than ourselves, can make advances, in 
the spirit of Christian love, towards a measure from 
which the happiest results may be anticipated? 1 

1 The year 1858 will long be remembered as a period of " Union 
Prayer Meetings/' and history will record results of a marked 
character. God has signally manifested his approbation of such 
fraternity. 



188 CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



I never heard an objection to union for such a pur- 
pose that did not contain internal evidence of its 
origin in a narrow, jealous, unlovely sectarian spirit. 
But whatever may be the barriers in the way of a 
general union for prayer, it certainly is possible 
for us as individuals to cultivate the habit of sup- 
plication for all Christians. The godly in all sects 
can pray, they do pray, for oile another, saying 
from the heart, " Grace be with all them that love 
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.'' Bishop Bur- 
gess, speaking of the desirableness of a fuller pub- 
he recognition of one another as Christians, says : 
" I ask no other acknowledgment than that which 
is made by each in his secret chamber, in his pri- 
vate conversation, in his prayers for all who profess 
and call themselves Christians ; and in his hopes of 
union hereafter with just men made perfect/' Set- 
ting out of the account the blessings which may 
descend upon others in answer to such prayers, we 
may be sure that to those who offer them will 
accrue no small advantage. TThen Job offered 
prayer for those with whom he had been disputing, 
and by whose reproaches he had been deeply 
wounded, his captivity was turned, and the smile 
of heaven rested again on his tabernacle. Many a 
Christian has found deliverance from the bonds 
of spiritual gloom, and had his feet set in a large 
place, the moment he has sacrificed the selfishness 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



189 



of his prayers, and sincerely prayed for all Chris- 
tians as the objects of his fervent affection. "Pray 
for the peace of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper 
that love thee." How much of this kind of prayer 
there may be in secret is known only to Him who 
seeth in secret ; but we know full well that our 
public devotions are not overburdened with it. 
Occasionally from the pulpit is heard a petition 
" for Christians of every name ; " but seldom is 
there anything to indicate earnestness in the re- 
quest. It is one of a stereotyped series, beginning 
with " all that are in authority," and ending with 
" thine ancient people the Jews." Tou, my brother, 
have heard language in prayer, that showed a pru- 
dent regard to some system of divinity, by the 
introduction of a conditional clause : "Do thou 
bless all denominations so far as they have the 
truth." How considerate to define the limits 
within which God may consistently bestow his 
favor ! Is He in danger of count enanciug error 
by blessing those who hold it ? 

Were I addressing one of a different spirit from 
yourself, I would say, Let us pray more for all 
who are " the children of God by faith in Christ 
Jesus." In all our private devotions, let us take 
their case as well as our own to the footstool of 
mercy, and let us there esjDonse it as our own, 
and feel that in the success of our suit important 



190 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



results are involved. Let us pray for others be- 
fore we pray for ourselves, and let our plea for 
them be as long, as particular, as urgent, as the 
plea for ourselves. When we surround the do- 
mestic altar, let us remember all Christians, and 
devoutly entreat the same gracious benedictions 
upon the entire "household of faith." In the 
place of social prayer, that "scene where spirits 
blend, 55 let us not fail to implore " the God of all 
grace 55 to bestow upon all his children "the ful- 
ness of the blessing of the gosj)el of Christ. 55 In 
the public sanctuary, let not the occupant of the 
pulpit, as he leads the devotions of his people, 
contract his or their desires for the Divine favor 
to the narrowness of a sect ; but let him enlarge 
the solicitudes of his heart, and open his mouth 
wide, and make " supplication for all saints, 55 and 
plead for the holiness, the usefulness, the happi- 
ness of all who love the Lord. The effect of such 
a service upon ourselves will assuredly be con- 
servative and healing. And were we to know 
that others are in like manner praying for us, 
should we not feel our hearts drawn out towards 
them? And when we might meet them, should 
we not extend to them a warmer hand, and cast 
upon them a more confiding look of brotherly 
love? And would not they and we be in the 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



191 



best of all moods for a candid examination of the 
grounds of our difference? 1 

7. WE MAY ENCOURAGE A PACIFIC MINISTRY. 

" Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be 
called the sons of God." This is one of the first 
lessons which the Great Teacher gave to his theo- 
logical pupils, the future ministers of his Church. 
This lesson they thoroughly learned from his 
varied teachings and illustrative examples; with 
its spirit they were deeply impregnated; under 
its influence they proceeded to every department 
of their labor, seeking everywhere to promote 
peace both between man and his God, and be- 
tween man and his fellow-man. Theirs was pecu- 
liarly "the ministry of reconciliation, 5 ' and with 
commendable fidelity they executed their trust. 
We have but to read the narrative of their labors, 
as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and the 

1 At a late meeting of colporteurs, an Episcopal clergyman, — 
Rev. Dr. Johns, of Baltimore, — speaking of " an excessive de- 
nominationalism," said: "Wherever this goes beyond love for 
souls, something is wrong. So fearful am I of this spirit, that 
I have been accustomed for years, in passing a house of wor- 
ship of some other denomination than my own, to lift my 
heart to God in prayer for that minister and his people." How 
Christlike that spirit! Would that there were more of it! 



192 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



letters which they addressed to communities and 
to individuals, in order to discover how pacific 
was their spirit, how anxious they were for the 
prevalence of love and concord, and how keenly 
they felt when there appeared the least indication 
of schism or disunion. It would be a profitable 
service for any minister of Christ to analyze the 
Epistles with special reference to this one point, 
— the peace-loving disposition of the primitive 
ministry. He would be surprised to find how 
frequently, how strongly, and in what a variety 
of forms, "the elders" and "all the holy breth- 
ren " are exhorted, entreated, commanded to culti- 
vate mutual affection, and to guard against every- 
thing that might tend to grieve and alienate and 
divide. In the letters to Timothy and Titus, es- 
pecially, he would find counsels pertaining to this 
department well worthy to be considered by him- 
self and by all who, as the messengers of "the 
Prince of Peace," are appointed to preach and 
to exemplify " the Gospel of Peace ; " — counsels 
which clearly indicate that it was an original de- 
sign of the ministry to preserve in the Church 
good-will and undisturbed harmony, as well as 
sound doctrine and faithful discipline. And how 
plain, how severe, are the remarks of the Apostles 
with respect to those self-willed and contentious 
teachers who pervert their facilities for promoting 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



103 



peace to opportunities for kindling strife and in- 
flaming hatred ! " From such turn away." 

The Church has largely experienced both good 
and ill from the men whom she has received as 
her spiritual advisers and guides. The confidence 
reposed in them as the accredited representatives 
of Christ, the sacredness of their office, the knowl- 
edge of Divine things which they are supposed 
to possess, and the freedom of intercourse with 
the people to which they are generally welcomed, 
all contribute to their influence in determining 
the principles, and moulding the characters, and 
tempering the spirit, and directing the conduct, 
of the great mass of professed disciples. It will 
not be denied that they have often employed this 
influence in fomenting; "discord anions: brethren," 
in aggravating the ferocity of party spirit, in rear- 
ing higher and stronger the sejiarating barriers, 
in rendering the separated more belligerent and 
more implacable. With them commenced the first 
schisms that disfigured and crippled the Church. 
By them mainly have schisms been multiplied, and 
widened, and deepened, and perpetuated. They 
have been the guardian sentinels, posted along 
the lines of party entrenchments, to superintend 
their integrity, and, whenever invasion is threat- 
ened, to give the trumpet a certain sound. Jerome, 
one of the Christian Fathers, has these words : 
17 



194 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



" Searching tlje ancient histories, I can find none 
who have more rent the Church of God than 
those who sustained the office of ministers." Mar- 
tin Luther is said often to have prayed: "From 
vain-glorious doctors, contentious pastors, and un- 
profitable questions, good Lord, deliver us. 5 ' 

The religious controversies which have inflicted 
so many wounds upon Christianity and upon 
Christian consciences, have generally been com- 
menced and continued by factious ministers. Xo 
others could or would have originated or main- 
tained them. Common Christians had no interest 
in them, and felt a repugnance to them, except 
so far as they became partisans and sympathized 
with their guides. Let the people of the United 
States interpret for themselves our Constitution, 
one of the plainest documents in the English lan- 
guage, and they would understand it alike. Their 
leaders misdirect them, and draw them off into 
parties rallied around some unintelligible, ab- 
stract construction, and teach them to regard one 
another as the enemies of their country and the 
generators of all political mischief. So, if the 
Bible, no part of which is " of any private inter- 
pretation," had been put into the hands of all 
Christians, and kept there, and they had been 
properly instructed to read and interpret it for 
themselves, the Church, we may believe, would 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



195 



never have been disturbed and harassed with 
those subtle distinctions and endless logomachies 
which have so grievously torn her own vitals, 
and often made her despicable in the eyes of 
unbelievers. Ecclesiastical History tells a most 
humiliating tale of centuries, with respect to the 
spirit and behaviour of a large portion of the 
Christian priesthood, their ambition, their conten- 
tiousness, their acrimony of spirit, their disregard 
of all courtesy, their inflammability of tenrper, 
their violence of denunciation, their bitterness of 
invective, their ingenuity in belligerent tactics, 
their rage for party victory; and to such men 
— demons they would in any other relation be 
called — may chiefly be traced the divisions and 
the hostile feelings and attitudes of the various 
sects which have successively appeared, and, like 
the renowned controvertists of Kilkenny, disap- 
peared. 

The minister of the gospel, especially the pas- 
tor of a Church, occupies a post of influence, and 
it is in his power to do much either for peace or 
for war, according to the end which he proposes 
to accomplish, the means he employs, and the 
spirit by which he is moved. He can promote 
good-will and harmony, or he can excite disaffec- 
tion, and drive the divided farther asunder. He 
can be a fountain of bland influences that shall 



196 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



soothe and heal, or he can be a volcano pouring 
forth sulphureous elements that scorch and blacken 
and devastate. 

Can we for a moment hesitate respecting the 
character and the spirit which we ought to en- 
courage in the ministry of the Church? Have 
we any pleasure in the labors of a man who makes 
the pulpit the vehicle of inflammatory appeals, 
and who never seems to be better pleased than 
when he sees that he has propagated his own 
spirit, and kindled in other bosoms the flame that 
has charred his own? Is he the pastor for us who 
is fond of irritating other denominations by pun- 
gent witticisms, and sarcastic ridicule, and then 
applying the fiery caustic to the excoriated sur- 
face to see how the victims will writhe and scowl? 
Is he our preferred spiritual guide who, instead 
of leading us into green pastures and beside the 
still waters, conducts us into the sectarian battle- 
field where hearts bleed and love w r eeps ? 

If there be a spot on earth where the spirit of 
peace and love should have its cherished home, 
it is the pulpit. If there be a man on earth who 
ought to be baptized in that spirit, it is the min- 
ister of Jesus. It is good to come near to such 
a pulpit, sacred to Love, and to find it occupied 
by such a minister, "full of the Holy Ghost and 
of faith." It is good to pass our Sabbath hours 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 197 

in a sanctuary where there is a Calvary, and on 
that Calvary a Cross around which we may gather 
in humility, repentance, confession, faith and hope, 
and by the power of which we may feel ourselves 
drawn together somewhat in likeness of heavenly 
companionship. And it is good to be led to that 
Cross by a pastor who dwells near it himself, and 
breathes the atmosphere that surrounds it, and 
walks in the light that it pours upon the hum- 
ble, and speaks the sentiments that it inspires, 
and prays like Him who bled upon it and gave 
it all its glory. He preaches the truth as he 
derives it for himself directly from the Word 
of God; but he does it without bigotry or dog- 
matism. " Set for the defence of the gospel," he 
"contends earnestly for the faith once delivered 
to the saints;" but he does it not factiously or 
provokingly. He warns all wrong-doers of " the 
wrath to come;" but he mingles with the holy 
wrath of God no wrath of his own. If he uses 
hard arguments, his words are soft. He is "pa- 
tient towards all men," "gentle unto all men," 
" in meekness instructing those that oppose them- 
selves." As "the servant of God," he does not 
"strive," and he stirs no strife among others. 
He is never satirical, except against immorality. 
Against persons he utters no reproachful epithets. 
He inflicts no unnecessary wounds. For the sake 
17* 



198 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



of peace, he yields everything except truth and 
conscience. He is more concerned for the prog- 
ress of the general cause than for sectarian vic- 
tory; for the salvation of souls than for the in- 
crease of his denomination. He dwells more upon 
the spiritual than the ritual of religion ; more 
upon the fundamental than the circumstantial. 
He puts truths and duties in apostolic order and 
apostolic proportion, and insists upon each, in the 
apostolic spirit, according to its relative impor- 
tance. He diffuses everywhere, and by every ap- 
propriate means, the genial and sunny influences 
of that heaven-born Charity which " sufFereth long 
and is kind, envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is 
not puffed up, behaveth not unseemly, seeketh 
not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh 
no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth 
in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,'' 
and "never faileth." He possesses and exhibits, 
in large measure, the wisdom that is " first pure, 
then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full 
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and 
without hypocrisy." In him are blended two char- 
acteristics ; he is wise as a serpent, harmless as 
a dove. He studies to promote brotherly love, 
regarding it as a proof of discipleship, and as 
adapted to convince unbelievers of the excel- 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



199 



lence of the gospel. Hence he exhorts all to be 
*• kindly affectioned one to another," "forbearing 
one another in love.*' He finds the Church 
"wounded and half dead," and he pours in oil 
and wine, and endeavors to soothe her feverish 
throbbing with the healing* hand of kindness. 
He labors to draw off the minds of the people 
from undue attention to inferior matters by pre- 
senting great truths for their contemplation, great 
commands for their obedience ; and thus, like a 
wise physician, he skilfully administers the proper 
moral alteratives. In private prayer he wrestles 
with God for the peace and unity of the Church ; 
in public devotion he pleads for the removal of 
the barriers that obstruct the free and holy fel- 
lowship of all believers. Like the High Priest 
of Israel, he never enters the holy place for the 
purpose of intercession, without the names of all 
the tribes upon his breast-plate. As the taber- 
nacle was the rallying point of the host in its 
marches to Canaan, and the central bond of union 
around which was every nightly encampment, so 
this leader of a Christian flock plants the Cross 
in the centre, and invites all to encircle it in close 
combination, knowing for a certainty that there 
the spirit of discord cannot develop itself, — there 
every schismatical feeling must wither and die. 
He dwells much upon the oneness of God's peo- 



200 CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



pie, having one Father, one Saviour, one hope, 
one inheritance. He is " a lover of good men," a 
lover of all goodness. For controversy he has no 
taste. As instinctively as the dove-like Spirit, he 

" Flies from the realms of noise and strife." 

He delights to work upon that part of the spir- 
itual temple where the sound of axe and hammer 
is not heard. His great object is the conversion of 
sinners and their culture in holiness, and in all 
he has supreme reference to the glory of Christ, 
preferring rather to jewel the Redeemer's crown 
than his own. He anticipates with strong rapture 
the period when the whole Body of Christ shall 
be " compacted together in love," and " come into 
the unity of the faith ; " the halcyon days of proph- 
ecy, when the godly seed shall rise above the par- 
tition walls by which they are divided, and flow 
together to certify, in the embrace of Christian 
fellowship, before the face of the world, the ancient 
power of godliness. He longs for the key-note 
to be struck, to which ten thousand times ten 
thousand voices shall respond in sweetest harmony, 
and to which angels themselves shall lend a de- 
lighted ear, finding in it the echo of their own 
on that day when they sang at the advent of the 
Redeemer. He is not widely known to the world ; 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



201 



he aspires not to the distinctions that men confer. 
His immediate influence is not far-reaching, but it 
is all healthful, and will go on through numerous 
channels, diffusing the beauty of holiness long after 
he shall have gone to his rest and his reward. 

How benign is the influence of such a pastor ! 
How green is the spot which he cultivates ! How 
refreshing to place one's moral nature under such 
influences ! How profitable to be trained by such 
a teacher for usefulness and heaven, himself leading 
the way! How great the pleasure of contributing 
to the support of such a minister, knowing that we 
are sustaining an agent of good, and good of the 
highest order ! His less tolerant brethren may 
suspect him of favoring some heresy, or of abating 
his zeal for the truth ; but none of these things 
move him. He believes that holiness and peace 
are inseparable concomitants, and that by pro- 
moting either he facilitates the advancement of 
the other. Like Chillingworth, he says, "If the 
ruptures of the Church might be composed, I 
do heartily wish that the cement might be made 
of my heart's blood;" or, like Baxter: "I can as 
willingly be a martyr for Love as for any article of 
my creed." 

Were all the ministers even of one denomination 
thus to feel and act, would the cause of truth suffer 
in their hands? Would their Master rebuke, or 



202 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



commend them? How long would it be before 
the prejudices of others would melt away like 
snow in a summer atmosphere, and the thousands 
of divided Israel reunite under the peaceful stand- 
ard of the Son of David ? Prophecy has sketched 
the picture, " a thing of beauty," on the future, 
and blessed are they to whom it shall be "a joy 
forever." " The watchmen shall lift up the voice ; 
with the voice together shall they sing ; for they 
shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring 
again Zion." 

" Were love, in these the world's last doting years, 
As frequent as the want of it appears, 
The churches warmed, they would no longer hold 
Such frozen figures, stiff as they are cold; 
Relenting forms would lose their power, or cease, 
And e'en the dipped and sprinkled live in peace; 
Each heart would quit its prison in the hreast, 
And flow in free communion with the rest." 1 

8. WE MAY PATRONIZE A PEACE-MAKING PRESS. 

The alienations and animosities among religious 
people are aggravated in no small degree by the 
newspapers, magazines, and reviews, which they 
read and support. These publications are now, 
what the pulpit once was, the principal arena of 

1 William Cowper. 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



203 



sectarian debate. There the pugnacious hide 
themselves behind the editorial impersonality or 
the fictitious signature, and carry on a warfare 
which contributes far more to the embittering of 
disaffection than to the evolving of truth or the 
maintaining of right. An editor inflames the minds 
of his readers, and the readers become corre- 
spondents, at once encouraging the editor and ex- 
asperating the inflammation in their own bosoms ; 
and thus the process goes on, reciprocally mul- 
tiplying and envenoming its pernicious tendencies. 

Does any one doubt the power of the periodical 
press to evoke or allay the unchristian spirit ? Let 
him habitually read two religious newspapers, dif- 
fering in their tone and temper, — the one kind, 
courteous, fraternal towards all denominations of 
Christians ; the other controversial, fault-finding, 
sarcastic, — and, if he will carefully observe the effect 
npon his own sensitiveness, he will soon be able to 
bear unequivocal testimony to the wide difference 
of their tendencies. The former will ever come 
like an excellent oil that soothes, refreshes, and 
perfumes his inner soul ; while every sheet of the 
other will be to his feelings like a corrosive cata- 
plasm, blistering whatever it touches. The one 
promotes a spirit of love and genial union; the 
other a spirit of irritability, jealousy and contention. 
The one strengthens the bonds of Christian attach- 



204 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



ment ; the other harshly ruptures the social liga- 
ments, and incapacitates them for reunion. 

As lovers of peace and harmony, we may direct 
our whole influence in favor of a press whose issues 
are eminently Christian. We may keep far away 
from ourselves and our families the publications that 
indulge in sneers at other denominations, and cap- 
tious criticisms, and satirical thrusts, and ungenerous 
insinuations ; we may welcome those — and such 
there are — that inculcate sound opinions in a 
lovely spirit, striving to tranquillize the perturbed 
elements, and to cultivate those feelings and habits 
which shall bring nearer together the separated 
flock of Christ. Happy indeed will be the day 
when all writers shall be peace-makers in Zion, and 
when all their readers shall be lovers and promoters 
of Christian Brotherhood. 

9. WE MAY IMPLORE A LARGER EFFUSION OF THE 
HOLY SPIRIT. 

" There is one Body and one Spirit." So said 
an inspired Apostle ; and in his day there was 
nothing even in appearance to contradict the as- 
sertion, or to render doubtful its correctness. The 
whole company of believers was that one Body. 
Though composed of a diversity of members, yet 
they were ail so arranged and " fitly framed to- 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOODo 



205 



gether," as to constitute one compact, symmetrical 
whole, of which Christ was the intelligent, con- 
trolling Head. In this Body there was one Spirit, 
and that the Holy Spirit, which dwelt there as the 
animating, assimilating, combining Principle. So 
long as the Spirit inhabited that Body as the 
indwelling Life, the Body remained united. When 
the Spirit departed, then the Body began at once 
to exhibit signs of decomposition, and where the 
carcass was, there the eagles were gathered to- 
gether. From that time to the present the defi- 
ciency of spiritual life in the Church has been the 
chief preventive to the reunion of her separated 
elements. When the scattered fragments of a man 
came together in the valley of vision, they were 
skilfully combined into a perfect foftn. But had 
not the Breath entered that form and given it 
animation, it would soon have dissolved and be- 
come as unsightly as before. So the portions of 
the divided Church may be brought into contact, 
and by mechanical forces made to assume the ap- 
pearance of unity; but, without the indwelling 
Spirit, all will go to pieces again, and be more 
remote than ever from that living unity which was 
once its beauty and glory. 

If, therefore, we desire to see Christians united 
and happily cooperating as the members of one 
Body, enlivened by one Spirit, we must, in God's 
18 



206 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



appointed way, secure the return of that grieved 
and alienated Agent by whom alone the work can 
be accomplished. He only can counteract that 
antagonist agent which has usurped his place and 
reigned as the spirit of division and death. 

In all ages, just so far as Christians have enjoyed 
the presence and the fulness of the Spirit, have 
they been divested of the sectarian element, and 
diligently sought for some common basis upon 
which they could stand side by side evincing to the 
world their oneness in Christ Jesus. And in our 
day, there is among all the more spiritual members 
of every denomination a strong tendency towards 
a greater union. When a religious revival com- 
mences in a place, how^ common is it to see Chris- 
tians of different names rush together, praying and 
laboring as if there were no differences of opinion 
or interest. The secret of this affectionate cooper- 
ation is found in the presence of the Holy Spirit, 
whose power has weakened sectarian repulsion, and 
given increased activity to Christian attraction. 
When this extraordinary Influence is withdrawn, 
how often do we see the different denominations 
returning to their respective inclosures, and com- 
mencing a most unlovely course of conduct ! In- 
stead of endeavoring to nurse and instruct the 
converts, they seem, by the efforts which they 
make, and the artifices they employ, to be intent 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



207 



upon nothing so much as to secure the largest pos- 
sible number to swell their own denominational 
triumph ! Their union in the first instance made 
a powerful impression upon the community, and 
facilitated the progress of the good work ; and 
their union was sincere, for it was the product 
of the Divine Spirit. But the subsequent com- 
petitions and conflicts of partisan interests, stirred 
up by the agent of all evil, sickened the commu- 
nity, and fastened a new stigma upon revivals. 

The Spirit of God is not wholly absent from any 
of Christ's genuine disciples. Every Christian 
is a temple of the Holy Ghost. Every evangelical 
denomination is favored with the visits and the 
benedictions of the blessed Comforter, Conse- 
quently, all Christians have some points of resem- 
blance, and some love one to another. But they 
have not enough of the Spirit to make that resem- 
blance complete, or to produce that mutual affec- 
tion which would bind them inclissolubly together. 

To this point, then, we ought to direct our im- 
mediate and earnest attention. The great want 
of the Church universal is ours, — the want of a 
large measure of the Divine Influence. The Holy 
Spirit is preeminently the " Repairer of the breach, 
the Restorer of paths to dwell in," and his presence 
and efficacious operations are everywhere impera- 
tively needed. Let us take right views of this 



208 



CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. 



necessity, and open our hearts as well as our un- 
derstandings to the full force of the conviction, 
that for all spiritual improvement we are dependent 
on the sanctifying agency of the Holy Spirit. And 
let us pray for an enlarged effusion of that Spirit — 
the needed blessing, and the one which Christ has 
specially promised to all who ask it. Let us pray 
more, and pray better. Let us be such in character 
and spirit and motive, as that we may have power 
with God, and prevail. Let us go alone and pray 
that the Spirit may return to us and to all Chris- 
tians in his fulness ; that he may descend into every 
one of our hearts as the purifying flame, and 
consume all the unholiness of our natures, and that 
thus we may be individually prepared for the great 
process of Christian consolidation. Let us unite 
with all who love the Saviour, to pray ; and, while 
we endeavor to unite in the service upon Christian 
principles and for Christian ends, let us lay our 
hearts together before the throne, and call down 
upon them the only Influence that can melt and 
blend them into One. 



VALUABLE WORKS 

PUBLISHED BY 

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SACKED RHETORIC : Or, Composition and Delivery of 
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MISCELLANIES. Improved edition. (Price reduced.) 1.25. 

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is published by the present proprietors in one handsome 12mo volume, at the low 
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Dr. Williams is a profound scholar and a brilliant writer. — X. T. Evangelist. 
The natural expression of a mind tee min g with the " spoils of time " and the treas- 
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A delightful volume. — Methodist Review. 

Glad to see this volume. We wish such men abounded in every sect — Ch. Reg. 
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Bb 



WORKS BY JOHN ANGELL JAMES. 



THE CHURCH TS EAK2JEST. 18mo, cloth, 50 cts. 

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Probably no writer of the present age has done so much to promote the interests of 
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A RELIGIOUS EXERCISE FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR. 

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Albany Atlas 

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gestive properties and comprehensiveness. — Ch. Mirror. 

It breathes the spirit of the gospel. It is eminently suggestive and practical. It 
deserves a place in every Christian's library. — 3". T. Recorder. 

This excellent treasury furnishes rich, practical, and devotional instruction. It is 
well to feed daily on such spiritual food. — JV. T. Observer. 

A treasure, indeed, to any one who will study its daily lessons.— Ch. Index. 

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. By Thomas a Kempis. 

Introductory Essay, by T Chalmers, D. D. New improved edition. 

Edited by the Rev. Howard AIalcom, D. D. 18mo, cloth, 38 cts. 

%*■" This work has, for three hundred years, been esteemed one of the best prac- 
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young minister " If you have not seen 1 Thomas a Kempis, 1 1 beg you to procure it. 
For spirituality and weauedness from the world. I know of nothing equal to it." 

That this admirable work may be enjoyed by all, the translation which best agrees 
with the original, has been revised and adapted to use by Dr. Malcom. Mm 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, as exhibited in the 
writings of its apologists, down to Augustine, by W. J. Bolton* 
of G-onville and Caius College, Cambridge. 12mo, cloth. 80 cts. 

This volume received the Hulsean prize (about £500) i i England. The author 
is evidently a very learned student of the patristic writings and the whole circle 
of ecclesiastical history. He has presented to the world in this essay an admi- 
rable compendium of the arguments for the truth of Christianity advanced in 
the works of the Apologetic Fathers during the third, fourth, and fifth centuries 
of the Christian era. These arguments are classified as being deduced from 
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reasonableness of doctrine, from superior morality, and from the success of the 
Gospel. — N. T. Commercial. 

W e thankfully accept such an effort as this of a profound and highly-cultivated 
mind. — Puritan Recorder. 

The work bears the marks of great research, and must command the attention 
and confidence of the Christian world. — Mercantile Journal. 

THE BETTER LAND ; or, Thoughts on Heaven. By A. C. 
Thompson, Pastor of the Eliot Church, Roxbury. 12mo, cloth. 
$1.00. Just published, 

THE MISSION OF THE COMFORTER; with copious Notes. 
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edition. 12mo, cloth. $1.25. 

Rich in spirituality, strong and sound in theology, comprehensive in thought, 
vigorous and beautiful in imagination, affluent in learning. — Congregationalist. 

We have seldom read a book with greater interest. — N. Y. Evangelist. 

The volume is of rare value, and will be welcomed as an eloquent and Scriptu- 
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THE VICTORY OF FAITH. By Julius Charles Hare, author 
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FIRST LINES OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. In the form of 
a Syllabus, for the use of Students. Royal octavo. $5.00. 

jgg- A most important work for ministers and theological students. 

THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD, and their relations to 
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The effort is masterly, and, in any event, must prove highly interesting by the 
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GUIDO AND JULIUS. The Doctrine of Sin and the Pro- 
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Pre-eminently a book for the timps — full of interest, and of great pcwei 

(£) 



IMPORTANT WORK. 



KITTO'S POPULAR CYCLOPAEDIA OF BIBLICAL 

LITERATURE. Condensed from the larger work. By the Author, 
John Kitto, D. D., Author of "Scripture Daily Readings," &c. As- 
sisted by JAMES TAYLOR, D. D. With over 500 Illustrations. 3,00- 

This work Is designed to furnish a Dictionary of the Bible, embodying the 
products of the best and most recent researches in biblical literature, in which the 
scholars of Europe and America have been engaged. The work, the result of im- 
mense labor and research, is pronounced, by universal consent, the best work of its 
class extant. It is not only intended for ministers and theological students, but is also 
particularly adapted to parents, Sabbath school teachers, and the great body of the re- 
ligious public. The illustrations, amounting to more than 800, are of the highest order. 
A condensed vievj of the various topics comprehended in the work. 

1. Biblical Criticism, — Embracing the History of the Bible Languages ; Can- 
on of Scripture ; Literary History and Peculiarities of the Sacred Books ; Formation 
and History of Scripture Texts. 

2. History, — Proper Names of Persons; Biographical Sketches of prominent 
Characters ; Detailed Accounts of important Events recorded in Scripture ; Chronol- 
ogy and Genealogy of Scripture. 

3. Geography, — Names of Places; Description of Scenery; Boundaries and Mu- 
tual Relations of the Countries mentioned in Scripture, so far as necessary to illus- 
trate the Sacred Text 

4. Archaeology, — Manners and Customs of the Jews and other nations men- 
tioned in Scripture ; their Sacred Institutions, Military Affairs, Political Arrange- 
ments, Literary and Scientific Pursuits. 

5. Physical Science,— Scripture Cosmogony and Astronomy, Zoology, Min- 
l&'alogy, Botany, Meteorology. 

In addition to numerous flattering notices and reviews, personal letters from <s 
iarge number of the most distinguished Ministers and Laymen of different religious de- 
nominations in the country have been received, highly commending this Avork as ad- 
mirably adapted to ministers, Sabbath school teachers, heads of families, and all 
Bible students. 

The following extract of a letter is a fair specimen of Individual letters received 
■from each of the gentlemen whose names are given below : — 

"I have examined it with special and unalloyed satisfaction. It has the rare merit 
vf being all that it professes to be; and very few, I am sure, who may consult it will 
f~say that, in richness and fulness of detail, it surpasses their expectation. Many 
"ministers will find it a valuable auxiliary ; but its chief excellence is, that it furnishes 
tost the facilities which are needed by the thousands in families and Sabbath schools, 
^ ho are engaged in the important business of biblical education. It is in itself a 15- 
DSaiy of reliable information." 

V/. B. Sprague, D. D., Albany ; J. J. Carruthers, D. D., Portland ; Joel Hawes, 
D. D«, Hartford, Ct.; Daniel Sharp, D. D., Boston; N. L. Frothingham, D. D., Bos- 
ton ; Ephraim Peabody, D. D., Boston ; A. L. Stone, Boston ; John S. Stone, D. D„ 
Brooklyn ; J. B. Waterbury, D. D., Boston ; Baron Stow, D. D., Boston; Thomas H. 
S kinner, D. D., New York ; Samuel W. Worcester, D. D., Salem ; Horace Bushnell, 
r. D., Hartford, Ct. ; Right Reverend J. M. Wainwright, D. D., New York ; Gardner 
Coring, D. D., New York ; W. T. Dwight, D.D., Portland; E.N. Kirk, Boston; Prof. 
Ceorge Bush, author of " Notes on the Scriptures," New York; Howard Malcom, 
3D. D.. author of " Bible Dictionary ; " Henry J. Ripley, D. D., author of " Notes on 
Ire Scriptures;" N. Porter, Prof, in Yale College, New Haven, Ct.; Jared Sparks, 
Edward Everett. Theodore Frelinghuysen. Robert C. Winthrop. John McLean, Si- 
pinn Greenleaf. Thomas S. Williams, — and a large number of others of like char- 
acter and standing of the above, whose names cannot here appear. H. 



IMPORTANT WORKS. 

ANALYTICAL CONCORDANCE OF THE HOLY 
SCRIPTUBES ; or, The Bible presented under Distinct and Classi- 
fied Heads or Topics. By John Eadie, D. D., LL. D., Author of 
the "Biblical Cyclopaedia," "Dictionary of the Bible," &c, &c. 
One volume, royal octavo, 836 pp. Cloth, $3.00; sheep, $3.50. Just 
published. 

The publishers would call the special attention of clergymen to the peculiar 
features of this great -work. 

1. It is a concordance of subjects, not of words. In this it differs from the com- 
mon concordance, which, of course, it does not supersede. 

2. It embraces all the topics, both secular and religious, ■which are naturally 
suggested by the entire contents of the Bible. In this it differs from Scripture 
Manuals and Topical Text-books, which are confined to religious or doctrinal topics. 

3. It contains the whole of the Bible without abindgment, differing in no respect 
from the Bible in common use, except in the classification of its contents. 

4. It contains a synopsis, separate from the concordance, presenting within the 
compass of a few pages a bird's-eye view of the whole contents. 

5. It contains a table of contents, embracing nearly two thousand heads, arranged 
in alphabetical order. 

The purchaser gets not only a Concordance, but also a Bible, in this volume. The 
superior convenience arising out of this fact, — saving, as it does, the necessity of 
having two books at hand and of making two references, instead of one, — will be 
readily apparent. 

The general subjects (under each of which there are a vast number of sub-divi- 
sions) are arranged as follows, viz. : 

Agriculture,— Animals,— Architecture,— Army,— Arms,— Body,— Canaan,— Cove- 
nant,— Diet and Dress,— Disease and Death,— Earth,— Family,— Genealogy— God, 
Heaven,— Idolatry, Idols,— Jesus Christ,— Jews,— Laws,— Magistrates,— Man,— Mar- 
riage, — Metals and Minerals, — Ministers of Religion, — Miracles,— Occupations, — 
Ordinances,— Parables andEmblems,— Persecution,— Praise and Prayer,— Prophecy, 
Providence, — Redemption, — Sabbaths and Holy Days,— Sacrifice, — Scriptures,— 
Speech,— Spirits,— Tabernacle and Temple,— Vineyard and Orchard,— Visions and 
Dreams, — "War, — "Water. 

It is adapted not only to assist the student in prosecuting the investigation of 
preconceived ideas, but also to impart ideas which the most careful reading of the 
Bible in its ordinary arrangement might not suggest. Let him take up any one of 
the subjects — " Agriculture," for example — and see if such be not the case. 

No Biblical student would willingly dispense with this Concordance when once 
possessed. It is adapted to the necessities of all classes, — clergymen and theo- 
logical students; Sabbath-school superintendents and teachers; authors engaged 
in the composition of religious and even secular works. 

A COMMENTARY ON THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By Horatio B. Hackett, D. D., 
Prof, of Biblical Lit. and Interpretation, Newton Theological Ins. 
New, revised, and enlarged edition. In Press. 

t^M" This most important and very popular work, has been throughly revised 
and considerably enlarged by the introduction of important new matter, the result 
of the Author's continued, laborious investigations since the publication of the first 
edition, aided by the more recent published critcisms of other distinguished Bibli- 
cal Scholars, in this country and in Europe. (y) 



IMPORTANT NEW WORKS. 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE : Social and Individual. By Peter 
Baym, A. M. 12mo, cloth. $1.25. 

Contents. Part I. — Statement. The Individual Life ; the Social Life. Part 
II. — Exposition and Illustration. First Principles ; Howard, and the rise of 
Philanthropy ; Wilberforce, and the development of Philanthropy ; Budgett, the 
Christian Freeman ; the social problem of the age, and one or two hints towards its 
solution ; Modern Doubt ; John Foster ; Thomas Arnold ; Thomas Chalmers. Part 
HJ. — Outlook. The Positive Philosophy ; Pantheistic Spiritualism. 

Particular attention is invited to this work. Its recent publication in Scotland pro- 
luced a great sensation. Hugh Miller made it the subject of an elaborate review in 
his paper, the Edinburgh " "Witness," and gave his readers to understand that it was 
an extraordinary work. The " News of the Churches," the monthly organ of the 
Scottish Free Church, was equally emphatic in its praise, pronouncing it "the relig- 
ious book of the season." Strikingly original in plan and brilliant in execution, it far 
surpasses the expectations raised by the somewhat familiar title. It is, in truth, a 
bold onslaught (and the first of the kind) upon the Pantheism of Carlyle, Fichte, etc., 
by an ardent admirer of Carlyle ; and at the same time an exhibition of the Christian 
Life, in its inner principle, and as illustrated in the lives of Howard, "Wilberforce, 
Budgett, Foster, Chalmers, etc. The brilliancy and vigor of the author's style are 
remarkable. 

PATRIARCHY; or, The Family: its Constitution and 
Probation. By John Haheis, D. D., President of " New College," 
London, and author of "The Great Teacher," "Mammon," etc. 
12mo, cloth. $1.25. 

The public are here presented with a work on a subject of universal interest, by 
one of the most able and popular living authors. It is a work that should find a place 
in every family, containing, as it does, a profound and eloquent exposition of the 
constitution, laws, and history of the Family, as well as much important instruction 
and sound advice, touching the family, family government, family education, etc., 
of the present time. 

This is the third and last of a series, by the same author, entitled " Contributions 
to Theological Science." The plan of this series is highly original, and thus far has 
been mest successfully executed. Of the first two in the series, "Pre- Adamite 
Earth," and "Man Primeval," we have already issued four and five editions, end the 
demand still continues. The immense sale of all Dr. Harris's works attest their in- 
trinsic popularity. 

" The present age has not produced his superior as an original, stirring, elegant 
writer." — Philadelphia Christian Chronicle. 

GOD REVEALED IN NATURE AND IN CHRIST; 
Including a Refutation of the Development Theory contained in the 
" Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation." By the author of 
"The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation." 12mo, cloth. $1.25. 
The author of that remarkable book, " The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation," 
lias devoted several years of incessant labor to the preparation of this work. It fur- 
nishes a new, and, as it is conceived, a conclusive argument against the "develop- 
ment theory" so ingeniously maintained in the " Vestiges of the Natural History of 
Creation." As this author does not publish except when he has something to say, 
there is good reason to anticipate that the work will be one of unusual interest and 
v ; due. His former book has met with the most signal success in both hemispheres, 
having passed through numerous editions in England and Scotland, and been trans- 
lated into four of the European languages besides' V is^lso about to be translated 
into the Hindostanee tongue. (jh) 



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